''Theridula emertoni'' is a species of

tangle web spider Theridiidae, also known as the tangle-web spiders, cobweb spiders and comb-footed spiders, is a large family of araneomorph spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. This diverse, globally distributed family includes over 3,000 spec ...

commonly found in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

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 ...

. Prior to its formal description in 1954, specimens of ''T. emertoni'' were often classified as '' T. opulenta'', a species with whom its range overlaps. The species can be reliably distinguished from ''T. opulenta'' by the

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

in females or by the

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

in males.

Cobweb Spider - Theridula emertoni, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Woodbridge, Virginia

Adult females are between 1.7 and 2.8 mm in length. Adult males are between 1.6 and 2.3 mm in length.

References

External links

''Theridula emertoni''
at Bugguide.net emertoni Spiders of North America Spiders described in 1954 {{Theridiidae-stub