Parasteatoda species have a characteristic teardrop-shaped abdomen, with the anterior section much higher than the carapace and the spinnerets pointed downwards. The abdomen's colouration is highly variable, both between and often within species. They have slight sexual dimorphism; males are visually similar to females, although slightly smaller.[4]
Species
It is mostly an Old World genus, with many species found in Asia and New Guinea, though the distribution reaches into Europe. A few species originate from the New World, but many have been introduced, and they are becoming more widespread in the Americas and Europe.[3]
As of May 2020[update] it contains forty-two species and two subspecies:[1]
Parasteatoda tabulata (Levi, 1980) – Tropical Asia. Introduced to North America, Europe, Georgia, Russia (Europe to Far East), Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan
^Bee, Lawrence; Oxford, Geoff; Smith, Helen (2020). Britain's Spiders: A Field Guide (2nd ed.). Woodstock: Princeton University Press. p. 174. ISBN9780691204741.
Further reading
Song, D. X.; Zhu, M. S.; Chen, J. (1999). The Spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang. p. 640.
Zhu, M. S. (1998). Fauna Sinica: Arachnida: Araneae: Theridiidae. Science Press, Beijing. p. 436.
Yin, C. M.; et al. (2012). Fauna Hunan: Araneae in Hunan, China. Hunan Science and Technology Press, Changsha. p. 1590.
Yoshida, H. (2009), "Uloboridae, Theridiidae, Ctenidae", in Ono, H. (ed.), The spiders of Japan with keys to the families and genera and illustrations of the species