Quick Facts

Scientific name:  Nigma walckenaeri

Size:  Head and body up to 5mm long

Distribution:  Found mainly in London and the surrounding counties, although there was a recent sighting in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire.  May originally have been imported by Kew Gardens.

Months seen:  May to November

Habitat:  Usually found on large leaves, and frequently on lilac

Food:  Flies and other small invertebrates

Special features:  Nigma walckenaeri spiders have a beautiful, bright green abdomen with a few white hairs giving them a shiny, or frosted appearance.  The legs are a yellowish-green.  Females have a green head (cephalothorax), while adult males have a brown head.

Nigma walckenaeri spiders are usually referred to by their scientific name, but they are also known as the 'Ice Green Spiders' or 'Green Leaf Web Spiders'.  This is on account of their colour (obviously),and also the way in which they catch their food by building a silk web across the surface of a leaf.

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