Venusta Orchard Spider

Venusta orchard spiders are very small spiders that build their webs in the horizontal plane. They are nearly everywhere in low foliage, especially in temperate deciduous forest understory and just about any type of prairie.

Here in northern Illinois, under the right conditions there can be thousands of spiders with webs in just the space of a basketball court. Hint: look for them on a foggy morning in front of a slanting rising sun.

Females almost always sit underneath their web, bottom side up. They are some of the most common spiders found in the American Midwest.
Orb weaver spiders get their common name from their large circular webs, constructed of concentric circles supported by radial spokes.Orb weavers show the greatest range of sizes and appearance than any other family of spiders. Their presence near humans habitation and their conspicuous web probably account for their iconic status among people otherwise uninterested in such matters. Completely harmless to human and their pets, these spider nevertheless inspire undeserved fear and loathing.

Orb Weavers
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Tree Encyclopedia / North American Insects & Spiders

Online since 2002