Interspecies Invitational Installation

Cool Facts

The Uloborid family enjoys a world-wide distribution. Hyptiotes veritas’s closest relative, Hyptiotes gertschi, can be found living nearby in mixed coastal forests in Maine.

about the Uloborid Family

Hyptiotes veritas is a member of the family Uloboridae.

What makes the Uloborids unique?

  • no venom glands
  • spin cribellate silk—a non-sticky, fuzzy looking silk that they fluff with a specialized comb on their fourth leg called a calamistrum
  • they either make orb webs that are oriented horizontally or spin a triangular shaped web that they hold vertically
  • hold their web suspended in the air with their robust front legs unlike orbweaving spiders which attach it to a substrate like a branch or the ceiling.