Spinyback Orbweaver

Description:

A female spinybacked orbweaver. You can tell she's a female cause she has six little spikes on her abdomen. Males have four. There is some color variation in this species. They can be yellow or white and their spikes can be red or black. A yellow backed spider can only have black spikes. This species of spiders do not live very long at all. Females die after laying her clutch of eggs and males die six days after fertilization. That's pretty sad. Their binomial name come from Greek "Gaster" and "Acantha" meaning 'thorn belly' and their second name means "Crab from", which gives rise to their other common name, the crab spider.

Habitat:

Native to North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. It has been introduced elsewhere, including Hawaii.