How to distinguish the Nosferatu spider from the house angle spider
Created: 10/05/2022 04:49 am
By: Oliver Schmitz
Nosferatu spider or a house angle spider?
Both spiders look very similar.
How to tell them apart.
Cologne – For a few months there have been more and more sightings of the Nosferatu spider in North Rhine-Westphalia.
But the relatively large and hairy animal is often confused with native crawlers such as the "big angle spider".
24RHEIN shows how to identify the Nosferatu spider.
Venomous Nosferatu Spider vs. Large House Spider: How Do They Differ?
Nosferatu Spider | Large house angle spider | |
|---|---|---|
Legs | eight, hairy, curly | eight, hairy, ringed or spotted |
Appearance/Features | Colored yellowish-black, drawing on the front body resembles a skull/Nosferatu, black spot on the abdomen, robust physique | Brown colored, rounded abdomen, soft hair |
size (without legs) | 1 to 1.9 centimeters | 1.0 to 1.6 centimeters |
Poisonous | Yes | no |
bite | Not dangerous, resembles a mosquito or wasp bite | Not dangerous |
particularities | Does not build a web, can walk on smooth surfaces | Lives in a web, cannot walk on smooth surfaces, longer legs than Nosferatu spider (eight to four inches) |
Both the Nosferatu and Hauswinkel spiders have eight legs and are generally harmless.
In addition to the visual differences, it is particularly noticeable that the house spider builds a web and the Nosferatu spider does not.
Image comparison Nosferatu spider vs. Large house spider
Nosferatu spider in NRW: where was it seen?
How to report sightings?
The Nosferatu spider has been spreading in Germany for several years.
In NRW it is meanwhile rather new.
In the meantime, however, sightings have also been made in many large cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Bonn.
Since the beginning of August, more
than 1500 sightings in NRW have been reported on
Naturgucker.de alone.
Thus the Nosferatu spider has already made its home here, explains Thorsten Wiegers, spokesman for the nature conservation association NABU in NRW.
The Nosferatu spider (left) and the large house spider (right) look very similar at first glance.
(IDZRW montage) © Robert Pfeifle/picture alliance/dpa/Nabu & blickwinkel/Imago
If you come across a specimen yourself, you can report the sighting either to the portal mentioned or to NABU.
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Nosferatu Spider | |
|---|---|
Higher classification | Zoropsis |
Scientific name | Zoropsis spinimana |
family | Curl hunting spiders (Zoropsidae) |
Poisonous Nosferatu spider spreads: This is how it came to Germany and NRW
Her name comes from the characteristic drawing on her back, reminiscent of the character "Nosferatu" from the first major film adaptation of the horror novel "Dracula".
The drawing on the front body of the Nosferatu spider is said to resemble the legendary vampire.
© Ronald Grant/Imago
The Nosferatu spider originally comes from the Mediterranean region and was probably brought to Germany as a "stowaway" in freight traffic in recent years.
The eight-legged friend was first discovered in Germany in 2005 in Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg).
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