House Feather-legged Spider
The colour of U. plumipes is highly variable, ranging from almost white to brownish grey. The abdomen has three pairs of hair tufts behind the paired and tufted dorsal tubercles.
The spiderlings are black on parts of their bodies and legs.
| Length | ♀ 4–5 mm; ♂ 3–4 mm |
| Type Locality | Algeria |
| Distribution | Widespread, including Sudan, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Seychelles, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan, Japan, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore. |
| Habitat | Associated with neglected corners of built-up structures (such as toilets, garage), or vegetation in cultivated environment (such as gardens and parkland). |
| Biology | These spiders tend to live in proximity to one another, each occupying its own untidy horizontal orb web. The hub is meshed, not hollowed like those spun by most orb web spiders. The mother suspends the egg sacs in the web and often sits near them. Egg sacs are slightly elongated, sprouting several horn-like projections. |
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Uloborus plumipes (Original description ♀)
Lucas, 1846 Histoire naturelle des animaux articulés: 252, pl. 15, f. 8 doi:10.5962/bhl.title.112444
Uloborus costae (Original description ♀)
Thorell, 1858b Till kännedomen om slägten a Mithras och Uloborus: 195
Orithya gnava (Original description ♀)
Blackwall, 1865a Descriptions of recently discovered spiders collected in the Cape de Verde Islands by John Gray, Esq: 90 doi:10.1080/00222936508679383
Uloborus plumipes (Original description ♂)
Uloborus signatus (Original description ♂)
O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1876b Catalogue of a collection of spiders made in Egypt, with descriptions of new species and characters of a new genus: 579 doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1876.tb02595.x
Orithya gnavus (Original description ♂)
Blackwall, 1877 A list of spiders captured in the Seychelles Islands, by Professor E: 12
Uloborus niloticus (Original description ♀)
Simon, 1884k Arachnides recueillis à Khartoum (Soudan ègyptien) par M: 20
Uloborus pictiventris (Original description ♀)
Uloborus plumipes
Simon, 1892a Histoire naturelle des araignées. Deuxième édition, tome premier: 212, 214, f doi:10.5962/bhl.title.51973
Uloborus niveivestis (Original description ♀)
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Dyal, 1935 Fauna of Lahore: 172, pl. 15, f. 104-110
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Berland & Millot, 1940 Les araignées de l'Afrique occidental français: 153, f. 6
Uloborus plumipes (Synonym of Uloborus niveivestis)
Lehtinen, 1967 Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha: 273
Uloborus plumipes (Synonym of Uloborus gnavus)
Benoit, 1978g Contributions à l'étude de la faune terrestre des îles granitiques de l'archipel des Séchelles (Mission P: 675
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Brignoli, 1979j Contribution à la connaissance des Uloboridae paléarctiques (Araneae): 277, f. 6
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Klein, Stock & Wunderlich, 1995 Zwei nach Deutschland eingeschleppte Spinnenarten (Araneae) - Uloborus plumipes Lucas und Eperigone eschatologica (Bishop) - als Gegenspieler der Weissen Fliege im Geschützten Zierpflanzenbau?: 301, f. 1-3
Uloborus plumipes (♂)
Efimik, Esyunin & Kuznetsov, 1997 Remarks on the Ural spider fauna, 7: 86, f. 5
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Roberts, 1997 Uloborus plumipes Lucas 1846 – has it truly invaded Britain yet?: 2, 6 f.
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Roberts, 1998 Spinnengids: 93, f.
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Horak & Kropf, 1999 Landeskundlich bedeutsame Spinnenfunde in der Steiermark (Arachnida: Araneae): 254, f. 1
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Almquist, 2006 Swedish Araneae, part 1 – families Atypidae to Hahniidae (Linyphiidae excluded): 44, f. 75a-i
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Saaristo, 2010 Araneae: 286, f. 40.1-16
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Suvák, 2013 Invasive spider Uloborus plumipes Lucas, 1846 (Araneae: Uloboridae), new to Slovakia: 39, f. 1a-d, 2-3, 4a-b, 5a-b, 6a-f, 7
Uloborus plumipes (♂)
Hänggi & Straub, 2016 Storage buildings and greenhouses as stepping stones for non-native potentially invasive spiders (Araneae) - a baseline study in Basel, Switzerland: 6, f. 2 doi:10.5431/aramit5101
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Lecigne, 2016d Atlas préliminaire des araignées Araneae du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais: 28, f. 13H
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Tanikawa, 2017b Uloborus plumipes and Dipoena pelorosa (Araneae: Uloboridae, Theridiidae): two newly recorded spiders in Japan: 5, f. 1A-B, 2A-B doi:10.2476/asjaa.66.5
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 2020s The Uloboridae of South Africa: 19, 4: 1 f., 17: 2 f., 19: 6 f., 20: 3 f. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7162209
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Henrard et al., 2022 On the arachnofauna of the Jean Massart botanical garden (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium): 130, f. 7A-L
Uloborus plumipes (♂♀)
Abdel-Ghani, Hassan & Sallam, 2023 Spiders as a bio-agent factor in a mango greenhouse at Giza Governorate, Egypt: 37, f. 29a-b
Uloborus plumipes (♀)
Lecigne, Moutaouakil & Lips, 2025 Contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of Morocco (Arachnida: Araneae) – second note: 149, f. 95A-C
* Retrieved from the World Spider Catalog.
Widespread, including Sudan, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Seychelles, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan, Japan, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore.