Minnesota Spiders

What types of spiders live in Minnesota? That’s a good question. Until recently the types of spiders found in Minnesota, or any other state for that matter, was almost unknown. Spider identification never really caught on with wildlife enthusiasts like bird identification and butterfly identification.

When it comes to spider identification, most people only wanted to know what types of spiders in their area are poisonous and how they ought to deal with them.

A recent survey of Minnesota spiders done at Bethany Lutheran College fills in some of the state’s unanswered spider questions. Currently almost six hundred and fifty species are on the list, divided into approximatley three dozen spider families.

With close to one hundred and forty species, Minnesota’s most diverse group of spiders are Sheetweb and Dwarf Spiders (Family Linyphiidae). They are basically the Minnesota spiders most people has never heard about. size is one reason. Most of the species are only around 1/16 of an inch, and very difficult to see. The only thing people usually see are the messy webs around the shrubs.

The common name says it all. They are a large family (species wise) of small spiders that build messy looking webs in forests and fields. In some instances, the webs of dome spiders look like a dome at a distance.

Sheetweb spiders have oval and elongated bodies. The video at the top of the page provides one example of a species in the family, the Filmy Dome Spider. It’s one of the largest

More familiar sounding spiders round out the top five Minnseota spiders in terms of species numbers and diversity:

• Jumping Spiders: 34 genera and 81 species
• Wolf Spiders: 13 genera 59 species
• Cobweb Spiders: 23 genera and 50 species
• Orbweavers: 17 genera and 48 species

The cobweb spiders include the state’s primary spider of medical concern, the black widow. Sometimes a story comes out about the possibility of the Brown Recluse spider reaching the territory. A recent study, for example noted that a changing climate might make migration of the brown widow north possible.

The remainder of the article provides an outline of the other more common Minnesota spiders. Please press the green spiders button for additional spider pictures and information.

Minnesota Spiders: Orb Weavers

Orb Weaving spiders, the spiders that build round webs, are common accross the state. Two genera, the Araneus and Argiope are probably the most common in residential areas.

The picture shows a Cross Orb weaver. They are a European import that slowly made the trek across the United States. Look for them primarily in the Twin Cities residential areas.

Two argiope species, the Black and Yellow Garden spider, and the Banded Garden spider, are also commmon in residential areas of the state.

Here’s the Banded Garden Spider.

Argiope spiders get the common name writing spiders because of the presence of a line of what look like “Z” markings down the web. Juvenile writing spiders learning how to weave a web tend to really go to town with “Z” marking prevalent in many parts of the web.

More Minnesota Spiders

Over 315 species of Jumping Spiders are documented in the United States. Minnesota’s Jumping spiders represent about 25% of the total.

Two different field identification clues help to identify wolf spiders. The picture shows a typical wolf spider with brown or muted color body. This acts as camouflage for the mostly terestrial spider as it hunts prey.

The wolf spider eye pattern is always the four eyes across at the bottom with two addition rows of two eyes atop. Female wolf spiders also carry their egg sac on the back of the abdomen.

Wolf spiders are common in yards and occasionally make it indoors. They might bight, but they are more apt to flee when spotted. The largest wolf spiders belong to the Hogna species. They can grow to a one inch body supplements by inch long legs. No wolf spiders are considered spiders of medical importance or poisonous spiders.

Back-yards across Minnesota are usually filled with Funnel Weaver spiders, common called grass spiders. Early morning dew brings out the shape of the web, with a hole or funnel in the middle. The spider sits near the hole waiting for an unsuspecting insect to wander in.

Finally, a variety of different types of spiders have the common name crab spiders. The so-called flower crab spiders are the most colorful with yellow or white bodies covered with stripes, often red.

Tallgrass Prairie Spiders: Minnesota

Tallgrass Prairie restoration efforts over the past couple of decades spurred ecosystem research that includes spider surveys. During the initial restoration phase, researchers suggested that spider diversity and density served as an indicator of relative prairie health. Spiders as predators help maintain an ecosystem balance of the prairie by preying on many of the leaf consuming anthropoids that also inhabit the prairie.

The checklist of Tallgrass Prairie spiders was created using the species presented in three separate research projects covering three separate tallgrass areas.

The Reed publication, Reed, Catherine. List of Insect Species which May Be Tallgrass Prairie Specialists Final Report to the USFWS Cooperating Agencies. July 1, 1996. , the earliest list, consisted of thirty five species that the author broadly labeled “may be prairie specialist”. It was derived from a literature review of the literature that included mentions of spiders in both the north and south tallgrass regions.

Jesús E. Gómez, Jenny Lohmiller and Anthony Joern 2016. Importance of vegetation structure to the assembly of an aerial web-building spider community in North American open grassland. Journal of Arachnology, 44(1): 28-35.
Spider survey at Flint Hills documented about one hundred different species collected over a three year time span using a vacuuming method.

Richard A. Bradley, Shauna L. Price, William L. Hickman, Robert A. Klips. Passive Re-colonization of the Spider Assemblage on an Ohio Restored Tall Grass Prairie Compared to Nearby Remnant Prairies and Old Fields. The Ohio Journal of Science. Vol. 120 No. 2 (2020)

Using both pit trap and sweeping capture methods, the authors documented 94 species. The author also notes, “in a separate investigation at the MCP site, a total of 1,646 individuals representing 143 species have been collected between 1988 and 2006 (unpublished data)”.

The large number of species in the checklist is more a function of differences in research questions and methodology than differences in spider species found in northern versus southern tallgrass prairies.

For example, the large number of ground spiders and wolf spiders documented in the Ohio study was a direct result of their pit trap methodology. Placing traps in the ground collects a diverse range of ground based spiders. The Flint Hills study focused on habitat diversity and the presence of orb weaving spiders. Under that research plan the authors orbweaving list of over two dozen species would be expected to surpass a study without such an emphasis.

A quick check of Bugguide also shows similar ranges for many of the orb weaving spiders. Taken together, the compiled checklist shows fairly robust spider diversity.

Tallgrass Prairie Spiders: Orb Weavers

Black-spotted Orbweaver

Black and Yellow Garden Spider

Lined Orbweaver with a nice view of the spider and stabilimentum

Marbled Orb weaver

Orchard Orb Weaver

Silver Long-Jawed Orb Weaver

Orb Weavers

Crab Spiders

The large number of species in the crab spider family Thomisidae along wide spread ranges for a subset of those species makes for a nice diversity of crab spiders in the Tallgrass Prairie ecosystem.

Synema parvulum

Green Crab Spider

Jumping Spiders

Phidippus cardinalis

Bold Jumper

Zebra Jumper

Phidippus pius female

Male Phidippus pius

Male White-cheeked Jumping spider ( Pelegrina proterva)

Female White-cheeked jumping spider. Note the lighter shade of the body.

Phidippus Clarus

Colonus peuperus

Colonus sylvanus

Jumping Spiders
Colonus puerperus
Colonus sylvanus
Eris aurantia
Eris flava
Habrocestum pulex
Habronattus calcaratus
Habronattus coecatus
Habronattus mexicanus
Habronattus rutherfordi
Habronattus tranquilus group
Hentzia mitrata
Hentzia palmarum
Maevia inclemens
Marpissa formosa
Marpissa lineata
Marpissa obtusa
Marpissa pikei
Metaphidippus arizonensis
Myrmarachne formicaria
Neon nellii
Paraphidippus aurantius?
Pelegrina galathea
Pelegrina proterva
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Wolf Spiders

Wetland Giant Wolf Spider ( Hogna helluo )

Lanceolate Wolf Spider

Lynx Spiders

Western Lynx Spider (Oxyopes scalaris ) pictured. Also includes Striped Lynx spider.