Ornamental Coin Spider
The female of this widespread species is recognised by a central orangish U-shaped pattern on the carapace, and by the wavy margins around a spotted and flattish abdomen. The venter is conspicuously coloured in orange with a central black patch. Juvenile female is paler with a less jagged abdominal margin. The male is a dwarf, being three to four times smaller than the female.
Its egg sac, coloured like meat floss, is fastened on the tree trunk. Spiderlings are pale in colour.The yellow arrow shows the dwarf male in a mating position, while the female is busy consuming its prey.H. multipuncta builds tree-hugging "ladder webs" which may be considered a highly modified version of an orb web. In this case, the radiating lines of the orb web have become the almost vertical stiles of a ladder while the concentric spirals are rearranged almost horizontally and in parallel with one another, thus forming the rungs. The hub takes the shape of a silken cup on which the spider sits.
| Length | ♀ 12–16 mm; ♂ 4–6 mm. |
| Habitat | Tree trunks in wooded areas disturbed by human activities, such as forest edges. |
| Type Locality | Maluku, Indonesia. |
| Distribution | Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah), India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Maluku, South Kalimantan), Singapore. |
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Suborder Araneomorphae (Typical Spiders)
Holotype
Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (ZMB), Germany (database export of type material, March 2019); Herennia sampitana Karsch, 1880, (3077)
Epeira multipuncta (Original description ♀)
Doleschall, 1859 Tweede Bijdrage tot de kennis der Arachniden van den Indischen Archipel: 32, pl. 11, f. 1
Epeira mammillaris (Original description ♀)
Stoliczka, 1869 Contribution towards the knowledge of Indian Arachnoidea: 236, pl. 20, f. 12
Herennia multipuncta (S, first reviser)
Herennia sampitana (Original description ♀)
Herennia mollis (Original description ♀)
Herennia ornatissima (♀, D♂)
Simon, 1894a Histoire naturelle des araignées. Deuxième édition, tome premier: 759, f. 828, 835 doi:10.5962/bhl.title.51973
Herennia ornatissima (♀)
Tikader, 1982a Part 1: 106, f. 202-204
Herennia ornatissima (♂♀)
Feng, 1990 Spiders of China in colour: 86, f. 61.1-6
Herennia ornatissima (♂)
Hormiga, Eberhard & Coddington, 1995 Web-construction behaviour in Australian Phonognatha and the phylogeny of nephiline and tetragnathid spiders (Araneae: Tetragnathidae): 334, f. 11A-B, E-F doi:10.1071/ZO9950313
Herennia ornatissima (♂♀)
Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999 The spiders of China: 213, f. 120P-R
Herennia ornatissima (♂♀)
Zhu, Song & Zhang, 2003 Fauna Sinica: Invertebrata Vol. 35: Arachnida: Araneae: Tetragnathidae: 71, f. 31A-H, pl. IVA-D
Herennia multipuncta (♂♀, S)
Kuntner, 2005a A revision of Herennia (Araneae: Nephilidae: Nephilinae), the Australasian 'coin spiders': 397, f. 1A-G, 2A-D, 3A-C, 4A-E, 5A-F, 6A-F, 7A-F, 8A-F, 9A-F, 10A-F, 11A-F, 12A-F, 13A-F, 14A-C, 15 doi:10.1071/IS05024
Herennia multipuncta (♂♀)
Kuntner, Coddington & Hormiga, 2008 Phylogeny of extant nephilid orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Nephilidae): testing morphological and ethological homologies: 168, f. 9A-E, I-L doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.2007.00176.x
Herennia multipuncta (♂♀)
Kuntner, Coddington & Schneider, 2009 Intersexual arms race? Genital coevolution in nephilid spiders (Araneae, Nephilidae): 1452, f. 1B, 4D doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00634.x
Herennia multipuncta (♂♀)
Kuntner et al., 2009 Mate plugging via genital mutilation in nephilid spiders: an evolutionary hypothesis: 258, f. 1a-b doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2008.00533.x
Herennia multipuncta (♀)
Eberhard & Huber, 2010 Spider genitalia: precise maneuvers with a numb structure in a complex lock: 264, f. 12.13
Herennia multipuncta (♀)
Álvarez-Padilla & Hormiga, 2011a Morphological and phylogenetic atlas of the orb-weaving spider family Tetragnathidae (Araneae: Araneoidea): 846, f. 133F, 134E-F doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00692.x
Herennia multipuncta (♀)
Sen et al., 2015 Spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) of reserve forests of Dooars: Gorumara National Park, Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary and Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary: 104, f. 601-606, pl. 21
Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah), India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Maluku, South Kalimantan), Singapore.