Bug FAQBlack Webspinner
Oligotoma nigra · Order: Embioptera · Family: Oligotomidae
Black webspinners grow to about 9 mm long and are uniformly dark brown or black, with females showing a slightly redder hue than males. They live in silk tunnels under rocks or structures near food, often at the base of palm trees, where they feed on dead plant material, mosses, lichens, grass and ornamental plants.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adults are entirely dark brown or black; females are a bit redder than males.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
They reach about 9 mm in length.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
During daylight they stay in silk tunnels beneath rocks or nearby structures, often near the base of palm trees.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
They feed on debris, dead plant material, mosses, lichens, grass and ornamental garden plants.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Their whole life cycle finishes within a year and they undergo incomplete metamorphosis.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Native to India, they spread to other regions and likely arrived in North America in the late 1800s with date-palm shipments.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 10 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Louisiana.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: introduced in North America; introduced in Canada; introduced in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What do black webspinners look like?
Adults are uniformly dark brown or black, about 9 mm long, with females showing a slightly redder color than males.
Source: Wikipedia
Where are black webspinners found?
They live in silk tunnels under rocks or structures near food sources, often at the base of palm trees, and are now present in many parts of the world beyond their native India.
Source: Wikipedia
What do they eat?
They feed on dead plant material, mosses, lichens, grass and ornamental garden plants.
Source: Wikipedia
How fast do they develop?
The entire life cycle is completed within a year, and they develop through incomplete metamorphosis.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Oligotomidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligotoma_nigra
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.