Cyrtophora citricola (Forsskål, 1775)

SPECIES |   ACCEPTED   |   TYPE SPECIES

LSID: urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:015804

Permalink: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/lsid/urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:015804

Described:

Distribution: Southern Europe, Africa, Middle East, Pakistan, India, China, Japan. Introduced to Cuba, Dominican Rep., Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Brazil


Type Repository Provide information
  • Holotype: Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart (SMNS), Germany; type material destroyed 1944 f of Cyrtophora citricola abessinensis - (Nentwig et al., 2019)
  • Syntype: Zoologisches Museum Hamburg (ZMH), Hamburg, Germany (data base search of type material, 11.02.2019) f (A0001732) of Cyrtophora sculptilis -
Taxonomic References
Aranea citricola Forsskål, 1775: 86 (D) Original description
Aranea citricola Forsskål, 1776: pl. 24, f. D (D)
Epeira opuntiae Dufour, 1820a: 359, pl. 69, f. 3 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064314]
Epeira cacti-opuntiae Lucas, 1838: 40, pl. 6, f. 7 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064315]
Epeira citricola Walckenaer, 1841: 143, pl. 18, f. 2 (Df)
Epeira emarginata Lucas, 1858: 418, pl. 12, f. 5 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064316]
Epeira opuntiae Vinson, 1863: 212, 313, pl. 9, f. 1 (mf)
Epeira flava Vinson, 1863: 222, 313, pl. 8, f. 3 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064317]
Epeira purpurea Vinson, 1863: 225, 313, pl. 8. f. 4 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064318]
Cyrtophora citricola Simon, 1864: 262
Epeira dorsuosa Blackwall, 1866: 462 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064320]
Epeira opuntiae Simon, 1870b: 314 (Dm)
Cyrtophora sculptilis L. Koch, 1872a: 128, pl. 9, f. 9 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064321]
Cyrtophora opuntiae Simon, 1874a: 34, pl. 1, f. 3 (f, S of Epeira cactiopuntiae)
Epeira cajetana Costa, 1882: sep. p. 28 (nomen nudum) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:064322]
Cyrtophora citricola Simon, 1882b: 230 (S of Cyrtophora opuntiae)
Cyrtophora citricola Simon, 1895a: 775, f. 845 (m, S of Cyrtophora sculptilis, Epeira angolensis [rejected by Simon, 1907d: 286, see Megaraneus gabonensis], E. chinchoxensis [rejected by Simon, 1907d: 286, see M. gabonensis] and E. emarginata)
Epeira (Cyrtophora) citricola Thorell, 1895b: 172 (S of Epeira flava)
Epeira citricola Workman, 1896: 32, pl. 32 (f)
Araneus citricola Pocock, 1900a: 226, f. 73 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola abessinensis Strand, 1906b: 618 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:015805]
Cyrtophora citricola Tullgren, 1910: 158, pl. 4, f. 96 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Simon, 1929: 713, 769 (S of Cyrtophora citricola abessinensis)
Cyrtophora citricola Dyal, 1935: 175, pl. 14, f. 111-115 (f, S of Epeira dorsuosa)
Cyrtophora dorsuosa Roewer, 1942a: 748
Cyrtophora citricola Roewer, 1942a: 747 (S of Epeira cajetana and E. purpurea)
Cyrtophora citricola Wiehle, 1967b: 195, f. 52 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Yaginuma, 1968b: 36, f. 6-7 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Brignoli, 1968d: 86, f. 4-5 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Saaristo, 1978: 124, f. 242-254 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Tikader & Biswas, 1981: 31, f. 43-44 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Tikader, 1982a: 180, f. 346-350 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Roberts, 1983: 253, f. 133-138 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Yaginuma, 1986a: 118, f. 62.3 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Chen & Gao, 1990: 60, f. 73a-b (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Scharff & Coddington, 1997: 375, f. 21 (m)
Cyrtophora citricola Levi, 1997: 252, f. 148-156 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Yin et al., 1997d: 279, f. 189a-e (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Levy, 1998a: 323, f. 47-56 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 279, f. 163R-S, 165B (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Levi, 2002: 538, f. 56-57, 275-276 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Álvares & De Maria, 2004: 155, f. 1-2 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Butt & Siraj, 2006: 218, f. 3A-C (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Gajbe, 2007: 515, f. 273-277 (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Víquez, 2007: 386, f. 1b-c, 2a-c (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Crespo et al., 2009a: 471, f. 1 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Saaristo, 2010: 50, f. 4.77-84 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Franzini et al., 2013: 30, f. 5a-j, 6a-b, 7a-c (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Ade & Dixit, 2016: 731, f. 3a-g (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Rozwałka, Rutkowski & Bielak-Bielecki, 2017: 60, f. 1a (m)
Cyrtophora citricola Dhande et al., 2017: 5234, f. 1-12 (m)
Cyrtophora citricola Martins & Santos, 2018: 451, f. 15E-F (m)
Cyrtophora citricola Soliman et al., 2018: 152, pl. 10E-F, 11A (m)
Cyrtophora citricola Nentwig et al., 2019: 35 (S of Cyrtophora citricola abessinensis confirmed)
Cyrtophora citricola Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 2022d: 69, p. 68: 1 unnumbered f., p. 69: 7 unnumbered f. (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Morano, 2023: 88, f. 61-65 (mf)
Cyrtophora citricola Jaffry, Butt & Zahra, 2024: 412, f. 1A-G (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Murcia-Moreno & Gálvez, 2025: 3, f. 3E-F (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Hamid & Al-Khazali, 2025: 34, f. 2A-B, 3A-F (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Sherwood, 2025b: 123, f. 2A-C (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Cubas-Rodríguez & Brescovit, 2025: 117, f. 1A-B, 4A-C (f)
Cyrtophora citricola Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2025b: 13, 16 f. (f)
References

Ade, P. P. & Dixit, G. S. (2016). Diversity and ecology of spider of the family Araneid Clerck 1757 from Shivaji College campus, Akola. International Journal of Scientific Research 5(12): 729-732. -- Show included taxa

Álvares, É. S. S. & De Maria, M. (2004). First record of Cyrtophora citricola (Forskål) in Brazil (Araneae, Araneidae). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 21(1): 155-156. -- Show included taxa

Blackwall, J. (1866). A list of spiders captured in the south-east region of equatorial Africa, with descriptions of such species as appear to be new to arachnologists. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (3) 18(108): 451-468. doi: 10.1080/00222936608679683 -- Show included taxa

Brignoli, P. M. (1968d). Su alcuni Araneidae e Theridiidae di Sicilia (Araneae). Atti dell' Accademia Gioenia di Scienze Naturali in Catania (6) 20: 85-104. -- Show included taxa

Butt, A. & Siraj, A. (2006). Some orb weaver spiders from Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Zoology 38: 215-220. -- Show included taxa

Chen, X. E. & Gao, J. C. (1990). The Sichuan farmland spiders in China. Sichuan Science and Technology Publishing House Chengdu, 226 pp. -- Show included taxa

Costa, A. (1882). Notizie ed osservazione sulla geo-fauna sarda. I. Atti della Reale Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche di Napoli 9: 1-41 (Araneae, pp. 28-29). -- Show included taxa

Crespo, L. C., Cardoso, P., Henriques, S. & Gaspar, C. (2009a). Spiders (Araneae) from Porto Santo (Madeira, Portugal): additions to the current knowledge. Boletín de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa 45: 471-475. -- Show included taxa

Cubas-Rodríguez, A. M. & Brescovit, A. D. (2025). Occurrence of Cyrtophora citricola (Forskål, 1775) (Araneidae) in Honduras: distribution and natural history. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 47: 117-120. -- Show included taxa

Dhande, S. S., Bodkhe, A. K., Ahmad, R. I. & Kamble, S. S. (2017). First record of male Cyrtophora citricola Forsskål (Araneae: Araneidae) from India. Trends in Biosciences 10(24): 5234-5238. -- Show included taxa

Dippenaar-Schoeman, A. S., Haddad, C. R., Foord, S. H., Lotz, L. N. & Webb, P. (2022d). The Araneidae of South Africa. Version 2: part 1 (A-C). South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide, Irene, 74 pp. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6326922 -- Show included taxa

Dippenaar-Schoeman, A. (2025b). Colour variations in Cyrtophora citricola (Araneae: Araneidae). SANSA Newsletter 56: 13. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.18058288 -- Show included taxa

Dufour, L. (1820a). Description de six arachnides nouvelles. Annales Générales des Sciences Physiques 4: 355-366, pl. 69. -- Show included taxa

Dyal, S. (1935). Fauna of Lahore. 4.–Spiders of Lahore. Bulletin of the Department of Zoology of the Panjab University 1: 119-252, pl. 11-17. -- Show included taxa

Forsskål, P. (1775). Descriptiones animalium avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium; quae in itinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål [sic]. Möller, Hauniae [= Copenhagen], pp. 85-86. [[for the spelling of the name see Forsskål in Wikipedia]] -- Show included taxa

Forsskål, P. (1776). Icones rerum naturalium, quas in itinere orientali depingi curavit Petrus Forskål [sic]. Möller, Hauniae [= Copenhagen], 43 pls. (Araneae, pls. 24-25). [[for the spelling of the name see Forsskål in Wikipedia]] -- Show included taxa

Franzini, P. Z. N., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A. S., Yessoufou, K. & Van der Bank, F. H. (2013). Combined analyses of genetic and morphological data indicate more than one species of Cyrtophora (Araneae: Araneidae) in South Africa. International Journal of Modern Biological Research 1: 21-34. -- Show included taxa

Gajbe, U. A. (2007). Araneae: Arachnida. Zoological Survey of India Kolkata 15(1), 419-540. -- Show included taxa

Hamid, M. S. & Al-Khazali, A. M. (2025). Hersiliola babilinus sp. nov. and new spider records (Arachnida: Araneae) from Babil Province, Iraq. Ecologica Montenegrina 83: 33-46. doi: 10.37828/em.2025.83.4 -- Show included taxa

Jaffry, K. H., Butt, A. & Zahra, K. (2024). Orb-weavers (Araneae: Araneidae, Nephilidae) from the Margalla Hills National Park, Pakistan with comments on morphological variation in Neoscona mukerjei Tikader, 1980 and emasculation in Nephila pilipes (Fabricius, 1793). Lahore Garrison University Journal of Life Sciences 7(4, 2023): 407-432. doi: 10.54692/lgujls.2023.0704305 [[publ. Jan. 7, 2024]] -- Show included taxa

Koch, L. (1872a). Die Arachniden Australiens, nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet [Erster Theil, Lieferung 3-7]. Bauer & Raspe, Nürnberg, 105-368, pl. 8-28. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.121660 -- Show included taxa

Levi, H. W. (1997). The American orb weavers of the genera Mecynogea, Manogea, Kapogea and Cyrtophora (Araneae: Araneidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 155: 215-255. -- Show included taxa

Levi, H. W. (2002). Keys to the genera of araneid orbweavers (Araneae, Araneidae) of the Americas. Journal of Arachnology 30(3): 527-562. doi: 10.1636/0161-8202(2002)030[0527:KTTGOA]2.0.CO;2 -- Show included taxa

Levy, G. (1998a). Twelve genera of orb-weaver spiders (Araneae, Araneidae) from Israel. Israel Journal of Zoology 43: 311-365. -- Show included taxa

Lucas, H. (1838). Arachnides, Myriapodes et Thysanoures. Paris 2(2), 19-52, pl. 6-7. -- Show included taxa

Lucas, H. (1858). Aptères. Archives Entomologiques de M. J. Thomson 2, 377-445, pl. 12-13. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.11206 -- Show included taxa

Martins, P. H. & Santos, A. J. (2018). Morphology and taxonomy of the orb-weaving spider genus Mecynogea, and a peculiar species of Argiope (Araneae, Araneidae). Zootaxa 4415(3): 423-451. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4415.3.2 -- Show included taxa

Morano, E. (2023). La familia Araneidae Clerck, 1757 (Arachnida: Araneae) en al ámbito ibero-balear. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 42: 67-118. -- Show included taxa

Murcia-Moreno, D. & Gálvez, D. (2025). Introduced spiders in Panama: species distributions and new records. Biology 14(4): 1-17. doi: 10.3390/biology14010004 -- Show included taxa

Nentwig, W., Blick, T., Gloor, D., Jäger, P. & Kropf, C. (2019). Tackling taxonomic redundancy in spiders: the infraspecific spider taxa described by Embrik Strand (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 58: 29-51. doi: 10.30963/aramit5809 -- Show included taxa

Pocock, R. I. (1900a). The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Arachnida. Taylor and Francis, London, 279 pp. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.48423 -- Show included taxa

Roberts, M. J. (1983). Spiders of the families Theridiidae, Tetragnathidae and Araneidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Aldabra atoll. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 77(3): 217-291. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1983.tb00099.x -- Show included taxa

Roewer, C. F. (1942a). Katalog der Araneae von 1758 bis 1940. 1. Band (Mesothelae, Orthognatha, Labidognatha: Dysderaeformia, Scytodiformia, Pholciformia, Zodariiformia, Hersiliaeformia, Argyopiformia). Natura, Buchhandlung für Naturkunde und exakte Wissenschaften Paul Budy Bremen, 1040 pp. -- Show included taxa

Rozwałka, R., Rutkowski, T. & Bielak-Bielecki, P (2017). New data on introduced and rare synanthropic spider species (Arachnida: Araneae) in Poland (II). Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Lublin-Polonia 71(1, 2016): 59-85. [[published in April 2017]] -- Show included taxa

Saaristo, M. I. (1978). Spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) from the Seychelle islands, with notes on taxonomy. Annales Zoologici Fennici 15: 99-126. -- Show included taxa

Saaristo, M. I. (2010). Araneae. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester, pp. 8-306. -- Show included taxa

Scharff, N. & Coddington, J. A. (1997). A phylogenetic analysis of the orb-weaving spider family Araneidae (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 120(4): 355-434. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1997.tb01281.x -- Show included taxa

Sherwood, D. (2025b). Annotated checklist of imported non-native spider (Araneae) taxa recorded in the United Kingdom 1800–2024. Arthropoda Selecta 34(1): 121-160. doi: 10.15298/arthsel.34.1.10 -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1864). Histoire naturelle des Araignées (Aranéides). Roret, Paris, 540 pp. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.47654 [[there are two published versions of pp. 65-68, version 1 from BHL, version 2 from Munich library]] -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1870b). Aranéides nouveaux ou peu connus du midi de l'Europe. Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège (2) 3: 271-358. -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1874a). Les Arachnides de France. Tome premier. Contenant les familles des Epeiridae, Uloboridae Dictynidae, Enyoidae et Pholcidae. Roret, Paris, 273 pp., pl. 1-3. -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1882b). Étude sur les arachnides de l'Yemen méridional. In: Viaggio ad Assab nel Mar Rosso, dei signori G. Doria ed O. Beccari con il R. Aviso "Esploratore" dal 16 Novembre 1879 al 26 Febbraio 1880. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova 18: 207-260, pl. 8. -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1895a). Histoire naturelle des araignées. Deuxième édition, tome premier. Roret, Paris, pp. 761-1084. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.51973 [[second pdf with detailed publication dates of the single parts]] -- Show included taxa

Simon, E. (1929). Les arachnides de France. Synopsis générale et catalogue des espèces françaises de l'ordre des Araneae. Tome VI. 3e partie. Roret, Paris, 533-772. -- Show included taxa

Soliman, F. E., Moustafa, A. Y., Ismail, T. G. & El-Masry, S. M. (2018). Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Jazirat Shandweel District, Sohag Governorate, Egypt. Serket 16(3): 133-160. -- Show included taxa

Song, D. X., Zhu, M. S. & Chen, J. (1999). The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House Shijiazhuang, 640 pp. -- Show included taxa

Strand, E. (1906b). Diagnosen nordafrikanischer, hauptsächlich von Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger gesammelter Spinnen. Zoologischer Anzeiger 30: 604-637, 655-690. -- Show included taxa

Thorell, T. (1895b). Descriptive catalogue of the spiders of Burma, based upon the collection made by Eugene W. Oates and preserved in the British Museum. London, 406 pp. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.17492 -- Show included taxa

Tikader, B. K. & Biswas, B. (1981). Spider fauna of Calcutta and vicinity: Part-I. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper 30: 1-149. -- Show included taxa

Tikader, B. K. (1982a). Part 1. Family Araneidae (= Argiopidae). Typical orb-weavers. In: The fauna of India. Spiders: Araneae. Vol. II. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, pp. 1-293. -- Show included taxa

Tullgren, A. (1910). Araneae. In: Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Schwedischen Zoologischen Expedition nach dem Kilimandjaro, dem Meru und den umgebenden Massaisteppen Deutsch-Ostafrikas 1905-1906 unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. Yngve Sjöstedt. Sjöstedts Kilimandjaro-Meru Expedition 20(6): 85-172, pl. 1-4. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.6622 -- Show included taxa

Vinson, A. (1863). Aranéides des îles de La Réunion, Maurice et Madagascar. Librairie Classique Eugène Belin, Paris, 337 pp., pl. 1-14. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.125517 -- Show included taxa

Víquez, C. (2007). First record of Cyrtophora citricola (Forskål) from Costa Rica, with notes on some related species (Araneae: Araneidae). Boletín de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa 40: 385-388. -- Show included taxa

Walckenaer, C. A. (1841). Histoire naturelle des Insects. Aptères. Tome deuxième. Roret, Paris, 549 pp., pl. 16-22. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.61095 [[not published in 1837, see pp. 430, 452, 505; plates in second pdf of Walckenaer, 1837]] -- Show included taxa

Wiehle, H. (1967b). Meta, – eine semientelegyne Gattung der Araneae (Arach.). Senckenbergiana Biologica 48(3): 183-196. -- Show included taxa

Workman, T. (1896). Malaysian spiders. Belfast, pp. 25-104. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.101972 -- Show included taxa

Yaginuma, T. (1968b). [The spider genus Cyrtophora of Japan]. Kansaishizenkagaku 20: 34-38. -- Show included taxa

Yaginuma, T. (1986a). Spiders of Japan in color (new ed.). Hoikusha Publishing Co. Osaka, 305 pp., 64 pls. -- Show included taxa

Yin, C. M., Wang, J. F., Zhu, M. S., Xie, L. P., Peng, X. J. & Bao, Y. H. (1997d). Fauna Sinica: Arachnida: Araneae: Araneidae. Science Press, Beijing, 460 pp. -- Show included taxa

External Resource References

* Disclaimer
As External Resources, the World Spider Catalog links here to species pages of other databases. They may contain further information for the given species. The databases, listed as External Resources, however, are not managed by World Spider Catalog and the information given there is not necessarily in agreement with the World Spider Catalog. All responsibility for such data is with the external database.

Nentwig, W., Blick, T., Bosmans, R., Kropf, C., Stäubli, A.: Spiders of Europe. www.araneae.nmbe.ch. Version 01.2026. doi: 10.24436/1

GBIF.org (2026). GBIF Home Page (via GBIF API). Available from: https://www.gbif.org [8 January 2026]

Edit History
Date Type Reference Old value Comment
2026-01-09 New taxonomic reference entry Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2025b
2026-01-09 New taxonomic reference entry Cubas-Rodríguez & Brescovit, 2025
2026-01-09 Species distribution update Cubas-Rodríguez & Brescovit, 2025 Old value
2025-03-29 New taxonomic reference entry Sherwood, 2025b
2025-03-25 New taxonomic reference entry Hamid & Al-Khazali, 2025
2024-12-30 New taxonomic reference entry Murcia-Moreno & Gálvez, 2025
2024-12-30 Species distribution update Murcia-Moreno & Gálvez, 2025 Old value
2024-01-06 New taxonomic reference entry Jaffry, Butt & Zahra, 2024
2023-07-05 New taxonomic reference entry Morano, 2023
2022-06-07 New taxonomic reference entry Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 2022d
2019-09-16 New taxonomic reference entry Nentwig et al., 2019
2019-09-16 Species synonymy Nentwig et al., 2019 Cyrtophora citricola abessinensis synonymized with Cyrtophora citricola
2019-02-16 New taxonomic reference entry Álvares & De Maria, 2004
2019-01-03 New taxonomic reference entry Soliman et al., 2018
2018-11-02 Taxonomic reference assigned to new taxon Tullgren, 1910 Taxonomic reference entry assigned to Cyrtophora citricola obscura Tullgren, 1910
2018-05-01 New taxonomic reference entry Martins & Santos, 2018
2018-05-01 Species distribution update Martins & Santos, 2018 Old value
2018-02-14 New taxonomic reference entry Dhande et al., 2017
2017-04-04 New taxonomic reference entry Rozwałka, Rutkowski & Bielak-Bielecki, 2017
2017-01-19 New taxonomic reference entry Ade & Dixit, 2016
2016-09-19 New taxonomic reference entry Crespo et al., 2009a
2015-02-23 New taxonomic reference entry Franzini et al., 2013
2014-07-21 Taxonomic reference update Old value

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