Money spider
The money spider is a tiny black spider, only about 2 millimetres long. It lives in grassy fields and meadows. Its special trick is flying: it lets out a silk thread and floats away on the wind like a little kite.
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Fun facts
Flying on silk threads is called ballooning, and it lets the spider travel very far to find a new home.
It is a helper for farmers, because it eats aphids on crops.
It has eight eyes in two rows of four.
It is one of the most common spiders of its kind, but it looks so much like its cousins that it is hard to tell them apart.
In winter it moves to taller plants, where it is better hidden and warmer.
Most asked questions about Money spider
?How does a money spider fly?
It lets out a long silk thread that catches the wind and carries it through the air.
?How big is a money spider?
Only about 2 to 3 millimetres long, smaller than a grain of rice.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Erigone atra
- Named by
- Blackwall, 1833
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Linyphiidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Linyphiidae
- Lives on
- North America, Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Dwarf spider
Where the facts come from
- Erigone atra (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Michael Hohner ( Mhohner ). CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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