Theridiidae  Sundevall, 1833 / Theridion  Walckenaer, 1805   63 species

Theridion mystaceum  L. Koch, 1870

Description
Male

Conductor laterally with small projecting tip. Palp: tibia 0.5 times as long as bulb. Prosoma 1.1 mm long. Characters as in female, but with epigastric area markedly bulgung.

Body length male: 2-3 mm
Female

Epigyne with a circular opening, copulatory openings well visible, more apart from each other than in T. betteni. Vulva with entrance ducts in numerous narrow loops. Prosoma yellowish-brown, tinged with black, eye region darker. Prosoma 1-1.2 mm long. Colouration and pattern as in T. melanurum. Sternum and chelicerae brown, sometimes almost black. Legs grey-yellow, annulated with dark brown. Opisthosoma very variable, mostly spotted brown, ventrally dark brown with white spot behind epigastric furrow.

Body length female: 2-3 mm
Additional information

Mainly in forests: coniferous, deciduous or mixed forests, also in heathlands, marshes, cereal fields, buildings, on walls of houses, bushes in meadows, hedges, on tree trunks and evergreen bushes.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Europe, Turkey, Russia (Europe to South Siberia), China
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Females almost all the year, with a peak in May and June, males with a peak in May.
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   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Austria   (no references) ||| Belarus   (Ivanov, 2013) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Grbac et al., 2019) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Estonia   (no references) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Greece   (van Helsdingen et al., 2018) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Cawley, 2001; Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Lithuania   (no references) ||| Luxembourg   (Hermann, 1998; Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Moldova   (Mikhailov, 2013) ||| Montenegro   (no references) ||| Morocco   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Lazarov, 2004) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Norway   (Aakra & Hauge, 2003) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (no references) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022) ||| 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) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Barrientos & Febrer, 2020) ||| Sweden   (Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| 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

Aakra K, Hauge E (2003) Checklist of Norwegian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae), including Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 50: 109-129 pdf

Barrientos J A, Febrer J B (2020) Arañas (Arachnida, Araneae) de Menorca (Islas Baleares, España). 3: nuevos datos. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 36: 69-78 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, 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

Breitling R (2020) South European spiders from the Duffey collection in the Manchester Museum (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnology 18: 333-362 pdf

Cawley M (2001) Distribution records for uncommon spiders (Araneae) including five species new to Ireland. Bulletin of the Irish Biogeographical Society 25: 135-143 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, 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

Domènech M, Crespo L C, Enguídanos A, Arnedo M A (2020) Mitochondrial discordance in closely related Theridion spiders (Araneae, Theridiidae), with description of a new species of the T. melanurum group. Zoosystematics and Evolution 96: 159-173 pdf

Fjellberg A (unpubl.)

Grbac I, Katušić L, Lukić M (2019) Catalogue of spiders (Araneae) deposited in the Croatian Natural History Museum. Natura Croatica 28: 185-269 pdf

Heimer S, Nentwig W (1991) Spinnen Mitteleuropas. Paul Parey Berlin pdf

Helsdingen P J van, IJland S, Komnenov M (2018) Inventory of the spiders (Araneae) of the border region of northern Greece with Albania and FYR Macedonia. Nieuwsbrief SPINED 37: 5-23 pdf

Hermann E (1998) Die Spinnen (Araneae) ausgewählter Halbtrockenrasen im Osten Luxemburgs. Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes Luxembourgeois 99: 189-199 pdf

Ivanov V V (2013) The checklist of Belarusian spiders (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoology and Ecology 4: 293-311 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

Kronestedt T (2001) Checklist of Spiders (Araneae) in Sweden [Preliminary version February 2001] pdf

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

Lazarov S (2004) A contribution to the study of spiders (Araneae) in Macedonia. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 56: 155-166 pdf

Locket G H, Millidge A F (1953) British spiders. Vol. II. Ray Society, London, 449 pp. pdf

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

Løvbrekke H (unpubl.)

Mikhailov K G (2013) The spiders (Arachnida: Aranei) of Russia and adjacent countries: a non-annotated checklist. Arthropoda Selecta, Supplement 3: 1-262 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

Pfliegler W A, Schönhofer A, Niedbała W, Vella P, Sciberras A, Vella A (2017) New records of mites (Acari) and harvestmen (Opiliones) from Malta with a preliminary checklist of Maltese Arachnida. Soil Organisms 89: 85-110 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

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

Updates
09-01-2024 Distribution update Detail
26-07-2020 Image insert
19-07-2020 Distribution update Detail
05-07-2020 Distribution insert Detail
06-05-2020 Image insert
06-05-2020 Distribution update Detail
18-03-2020 Distribution insert Detail
06-01-2020 Image insert
28-06-2019 Distribution update Detail
13-03-2019 Image insert
05-02-2019 Distribution update Detail
16-05-2018 Distribution update Detail
28-12-2016 Datasheet update Detail
28-12-2016 Distribution update Detail
21-10-2015 Distribution update Detail