Wildlife
The money spider family is a huge group, with thousands of species in it. They are all small spiders, not more than 5mm long. They get their name from the folklore that if a money spider got caught in your hair it would bring you good luck and increased wealth.
Scientific name: Linyphiidae
Rank: Family
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Flying spiders
Baby money spiders go ballooning on gossamer threads.
'What I love about this clip is that every autumn, anyone and everyone in the UK can see this event. Young spiders, blown by the wind, become part of the aerial plankton.' (George McGavin)
Aphid attack
When aphids attack farm crops their damage isn't stopped by ladybirds, but by an unsung hero.
When aphids attack farm crops their damage isn't stopped by ladybirds, but by an unsung hero.
The Money spiders can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Amazon Rainforest, Arctic, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, Indian subcontinent, Madagascar, Mediterranean, North America, Russia, South America, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Linyphiidae is a family of spiders, including more than 4,300 described species in 578 genera worldwide. This makes Linyphiidae the second largest family of spiders after the Salticidae. New species are still being discovered throughout the world, and the family is poorly known. Because of the difficulty in identifying such tiny spiders, there are regular changes in taxonomy as species are combined or divided.
Spiders in this family are commonly known as sheet weavers (from the shape of their webs), or money spiders (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and in Portugal, from the superstition that if such a spider is seen running on you, it has come to spin you new clothes, meaning financial good fortune).
There are six subfamilies, of which Linyphiinae (the sheetweb spiders), Erigoninae (the dwarf spiders), and Micronetinae, contain the majority of described species.
Common genera include Neriene, Lepthyphantes, Erigone, Eperigone, Bathyphantes, Troglohyphantes, the monotypic genus Tennesseellum and many others. These are among the most abundant spiders in the temperate regions, although many are also found in the tropics. The generally larger bodied members of the subfamily Linyphiinae are commonly found in classic bowl and doily webs or filmy domes. The usually tiny members of the Erigoninae are builders of tiny sheet webs. These tiny spiders (usually 3 mm or less) commonly balloon even as adults and may be very numerous in a given area on one day, only to disappear on the next. Some males of the erigonines are very strange, with their eyes set up on mounds or turrets. This reaches an extreme in some members of the large genus Walckenaeria, where several of the male's eyes are placed on a stalk taller than the carapace.
A few spiders in this family include:
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George's marvellous minibeasts
A video collection featuring bugs and insects in amazing close up selected by insect expert and TV presenter George McGavin, with Goliath spiders, killer centipedes, ants and moths.
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Carnivorous
Adapted to gliding
Tactile sense
Moulting
Egg layer
Trapping predator
Venomous