Theridiidae  Sundevall, 1833 / Theridion  Walckenaer, 1805   63 species

Theridion melanurum  Hahn, 1831

Description
Male

Conductor ± circular. Palp: tibia as long as bulb. Prosoma 1-1.6 mm long. Characters as in female, but epigastric area markedly bulging.

Body length male: 2.5-4.5 mm
Female

Epigyne with posteriorly indented groove. Vulva with double-looped entrance ducts. Prosoma dark brown, suffused with black, margin black. Prosoma 1-1.6 mm long. Sternum dark brown. Legs light brown, with thin black annulations. Opisthosoma colour very variable, dorsally with bright longitudinal band.

Body length female: 2.5-4.6 mm
Additional information

In crevices and mural chinks (but not together with T. betteni), in the mountains up to 1500 m.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Macaronesia, North Africa, Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Middle Siberia), Middle East. Introduced to USA
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Peak between April and July.
Figures
Distribution List

"No references" does not mean that the species does not occur in this country, but that we have not yet inserted the reference for it. We are working on it.

Albania   (Deltshev et al., 2011b) ||| Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Andorra   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belarus   (Zhukovets, 2017) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Estonia   (no references) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Greece   (no references) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Latvia   (Cera, 2018) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Moldova   (Vasiliev & Mikhailov, 2023) ||| Montenegro   (no references) ||| Morocco   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Deltshev et al., 2013) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (no references) ||| Russia, Central   (no references) ||| Russia, Eastern   (no references) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Western   (no references) ||| Serbia   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Sweden   (Almquist, 2005) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Tunisia   (Bosmans, 2003) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Demircan & Topçu, 2016) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Aakra K (2000a) New records of spiders (Araneae) from Norway with notes on epigynal characters of Philodromus fuscomarginatus (De Geer) (Philodromidae) and Araneus sturmi (Hahn) (Araneidae). Norwegian Journal of Entomology 47: 77-88 pdf

Almquist S (2005) Swedish Araneae, part 1 – families Atypidae to Hahniidae (Linyphiidae excluded). Insect Systematics & Evolution, Supplement 62: 1-124 pdf

Benhacene R, Adjami A, Hadjeb A, Kermiche K, Ouakid M L (2023) Bibliographic checklist of the Algerian spider fauna (Araneae). Zootaxa 5352: 301-357 pdf

Blagoev G, Deltshev C, Lazarov S, Naumova M (2018) The spiders (Araneae) of Bulgaria. Version: August 2018. National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Online at http://www.nmnhs.com/spiders-bulgaria/ (accessed on 10.9.2018) pdf

Bosmans R (2003) A checklist of the spiders of Tunisia, with description of a new species of Palliduphantes Saaristo & Tanasevitch (Araneae: Linyphiidae). Kaupia - Darmstädter Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte 12: 89-109 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer J, Russell-Smith A, Hadjiconstantis M, Komnenov M, Bosselaers J, Huber S, McCowan D, Snazell R, Decae A, Zoumides C, Kielhorn K-H, Oger P (2019c) Spiders of Cyprus (Araneae). A catalogue of all currently known species from Cyprus. Newsletter of the Belgian Arachnological Society 34, Suppl. 1: 1-173 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer K (2017) Een herziene soortenlijst van de Belgische spinnen (Araneae). Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 32: 39-69 pdf

Bosmans R. (unpubl.) Provisional list of spiders of North Africa. Database excerpt Aug. 2019

Branco V V, Morano E, Cardoso P (2019) An update to the Iberian spider checklist (Araneae). Zootaxa 4614: 201-254 pdf

Cera I (2018) The checklist of Latvian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae). Environmental and Experimental Biology 16: 139-152 pdf

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2024) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2024 [last updated 01 January 2024], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Deltshev C, Komnenov M, Blagoev G, Georgiev T, Lazarov S, Stojkoska E, Naumova M (2013) Faunistic diversity of spiders (Araneae) in Galichitsa Mountain (FYR Macedonia). Biodiversity Data Journal 1(e977): 1-70 pdf

Deltshev C, Vrenozi B, Blagoev G, Lazarov S (2011b) Spiders of Albania – faunistic and zoogeographical review (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 63: 125-144 pdf

Demircan N, Topçu A (2016) First records for spider fauna of the European part of Turkey (Araneae). Serket 15: 85-91 pdf

Koponen S, Fritzén N R, Pajunen T (2016) Checklist of spiders in Finland (Araneae). 6th version, December 2016, online at http://biolcoll.utu.fi/arach/checklist_of_spiders_in_Finland.htm pdf

Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91 pdf

Kreuels M, Staudt A, Christian S (2019) Die Spinnenfauna von Luxemburg – eine Zusammenstellung der Nachweise aus den Jahren 1906-2018 (Arachnida: Araneae). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 121: 203-230 pdf

Lavery A (2019) A revised checklist of the spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Arachnology 18: 196-212 pdf

Locket G H, Millidge A F, Merrett P (1974) British Spiders, Volume III. Ray Society, London, 315 pp. pdf

Milosevic B (2002) Aranea – Popis vrsta – Checklist. Hrvatsko entomološko društvo – Inventar entomofaune Hrvatske [Aranea – List of species – Checklist. Croatian Entomological Society – Inventory of Croatian entomofauna]. pdf

Otto S (2022) Caucasian spiders. A faunistic database on the spiders of the Caucasus Ecoregion. Database version 02.2022. Internet: caucasus-spiders.info.

Pantini P, Isaia M (2019) Araneae.it: the online catalog of Italian spiders, with addenda on other arachnid orders occurring in Italy (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Pseudoscorpionida, Scorpiones, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 51: 127-152 pdf

Polchaninova N, Prokopenko E (2019) An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57: 60-64 & App pdf

Ponomarev A V (2022) Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of the southeast of the Russian Plain: catalogue, the fauna specific features. SSC RAS Publishers, Rostov-on-Don, 640 pp. pdf

Roberts M J (1995) Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe. HarperCollins, London, 383 pp. pdf

Rozwałka R, Stanska M (2008) Check-list of spiders (Araneae) of Poland. 1. December 2008. online at http://www.arachnologia.edu.pl/en/species/8-spiders-of-poland.html pdf

Růžička V, Řezáč M (2022a) Seznam pavouků České republiky. List of spiders of the Czech Republic. Online at https://www.arachnology.cz/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html and https://www.arachnology.cz/en/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html pdf

Samu F, Szinetár C (1999) Bibliographic check list of the Hungarian spider fauna. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 161-184 pdf

Thaler K (1966) Fragmenta Faunistica Tirolensia (Diplopoda, Arachnida). Berichte des Naturwissenschaftlich-Medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck 54: 151-157 pdf

Vanuytven H (2014) Theridion asopi n. sp., a new member of the Theridion melanurum group (Araneae: Theridiidae) in Europe. Arachnology 16: 127-134 pdf

Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342 pdf

Wiehle H (1937) Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea, VIII. 26: Familie Theridiidae oder Haubennetzspinnen (Kugelspinnen). Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 33: 119-222 pdf

WSC (2024) World Spider Catalog. Version 25.0. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (22.01.2024) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Zhukovets E M (2017) [Spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha]. Riftur Print, Minsk, 272 pp. [N.B.: presumably publ. in Jan. 2019] pdf

Updates
08-03-2022 Distribution insert Detail
25-02-2022 Distribution update Detail
25-02-2022 Distribution insert Detail
17-07-2020 Distribution update Detail
06-05-2020 Distribution insert Detail
16-05-2018 Distribution update Detail
05-08-2014 Image insert
04-12-2013 Distribution update Detail
15-10-2013 Distribution update Detail
15-04-2013 Distribution update Detail