Argyrodes
Argyrodes, also called dewdrop spiders, is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1864. They occur worldwide, and are best known for their kleptoparasitism. They can spin their own webs, but tend to invade and reside in their hosts' webs. This relationship can be commensal or even mutual if the dewdrop spider feeds on small trapped insects that are not eaten by the host. Some species can even prey upon the host.

Ryan Kaldari · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- TheridiidaePBDB
- Life habit
- solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida
Time the record covers
At least 13 million years on record.
The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.
5 occurrences of Argyrodes on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
5 occurrencesThese are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in the same rock
220 taxa- Lasaeola2 sites
- Philodromidae2 sites
- Theridiidae2 sites
- Achaearanea extincta1 site
- Anelosimus clypeatus1 site
- Anisepyris gradatus1 site
- Anyphaenoides bulla1 site
- Arachnolithulus pygmaeus1 site
- Araneometa1 site
- Araneometa excelsa1 site
- Araneometa herrlingi1 site
- Araneus nanus1 site
- Ariadna1 site
- Ariadna copalis1 site
- Ariadna paucispinosa1 site
- Azilia1 site
- Azilia hispaniolensis1 site
- Barychelidae1 site
- Bethylidae1 site
- Castianeira tenebricosa1 site
- Ceratinopsis deformans1 site
- Chemmisomma dubia1 site
- Chrosiothes biconigerus1 site
- Chrosiothes curvispinosus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Argyrodes, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Die fossilen Spinnen im dominikanischen Bernstein2
- Some subrecent spiders (Araneae) in copal from Madagascar1
- On extant and fossil (Eocene) European comb-footed spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae), with notes on their subfamilies, and with descriptions of new taxa1
- Subrecent spiders (Araneae) in copal from Madagascar, with description of new species1
Each of the 5 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Argyrodes
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ryan Kaldari
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Argyrodes was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Argyrodes”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itTheridiidae through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simon 1864