100 More Species #39: American house spider

American house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum


The American house spider is thought to be native to South America but is now found inside buildings around the world. This individual chose to build her web on and around our basement toilet, and I removed her in the course of repairing said toilet. I have nothing against harmless household spiders, but come on, get off of my toilet. This species is one of those that build disorganized tangled webs in the upper corners of a room (cobwebs).

I previously wrote about this species here. That link includes the etymology of cobweb.

The wikipedia page on this species is some of the worst writing I've ever seen: awkward and inaccurate, possibly translated from a foreign language fantasy website.