Bug FAQSmall Orbweaver
Hypsosinga pygmaea · Order: Araneae · Family: Araneidae
The small orbweaver Hypsosinga pygmaea is known as the spotted false pajama spider. It builds a complete orb-web, sometimes with a retreat, and is collected by sweep-netting grasses and herbs in grassland and savanna habitats. In South Africa it occurs in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, from 47 to 1,471 m elevation.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
It is commonly called the spotted false pajama spider.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Hypsosinga pygmaea builds a complete orb-web, sometimes with a retreat. The species is mainly collected by sweep-netting grasses and herbs in grassland and savanna biomes.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
In South Africa it is known from Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, at altitudes between 47 and 1,471 m.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 16 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Maine, North Dakota, Colorado, Alaska, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Araneidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsosinga_pygmaea
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-28 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-28.