''Leucauge venusta'', known as the orchard spider, is a long-jawed orbweaver spider that occurs from southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, along the East coast, reaching into the central US, also in South Asia.The web is often oriented horizontally, with the spider hanging down in the center. It is distinctively colored, with leaf-green legs and sides (which can sometimes vary to a dark green or even orange). The underside of its thorax is spotted with yellow and black, the top is silvery with brown and black streaks. The neon yellow, orange or red spots on the rear of the abdomen are variable in size among individuals and sometimes absent. This species is parasitised by a wasp larva which attaches itself externally at the junction of the

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

and abdomen.BBC "Life in the Undergrowth"/"Intimate Relations" Orchard Spider (Leucauge venusta) - male

A similar species in the same genus is ''

Leucauge mariana ''Leucauge mariana'' is a long-jawed orb weaver spider, native to Central America and South America. Its web building and sexual behavior have been studied extensively. Males perform several kinds of courtship behavior to induce females to copula ...

''.

Gallery

File:Orchard Spider.jpg File:Orchard Spider in web.JPG File:Orchard Orb-weaver (Leucauge venusta).jpg File:Prettyorchardspider.jpg File:Orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) in web.jpg, alt=Orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) in orb style web, In web Juvenile orchard orbweaver (32768).jpg, Juvenile in a web in New York

References

* Walckenaer, C. A. 1842. Histoire naturelle des Insects. ''Aptères.'' Paris, 2:1-549.

External links

Picture of ''L. venusta'' with egg sac
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1059185 venusta Spiders of North America Spiders of Central America Spiders of South America Spiders described in 1842