#4218 · 🕷️ spiders & kin

Common House Spider

🇳🇱 Broeikasspin ·Parasteatoda tepidariorum

🕷️ Spiders & kin 📍 in the Netherlands (introduced)

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

Parasteatoda tepidariorum , the common house spider or American house spider , is a spider species of the genus Parasteatoda with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common house spiders are synanthropic and live in and near human dwellings. Their prey mechanism is similar to that of the other cobweb spiders: the spider follows disturbances transmitted along the web to entangle and then paralyze its prey, which usually consists of household insects and other invertebrates (often considered as pests).

base stats

NL sightings 98iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 34,282iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

Spotted 98 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #33 most seen of the spiders & kin in NL.
34,282 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Carl Ludwig Koch in 1841 (185 years ago).
Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.