Socca pustulosa

Socca pustulosa, commonly called the knobbled orbweaver[1] or garden orb weaver spider, is a common small species of spider found in Australia and New Zealand.

Socca pustulosa
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Araneidae
Genus:	Socca
Species:	S. pustulosa
Binomial name
Socca pustulosa (Walckenaer, 1841)

Socca pustulosa comes in a range of colours, from almost uniform black to various shades of brown. Females, at 8.9-11.8 mm long, are larger than males, at 5.8-7.0 mm long. There is a distinctive pattern of humps or tubercles on the upper surface of its abdomen: two near the base and towards the sides, and five at the posterior part of the abdomen (three in a transverse row, followed by two in a line). This is shared with other species of Socca. The underside of the abdomen can be used to distinguish S. pustulosa from its congeners, as it has two elongated transverse white spots on a black background.[2]

At night, the spider constructs a circular web in which it waits in its middle for prey to fly into and be entangled.[3]

The species was formerly placed in Eriophora. It was moved to Socca in 2022 in the same study that established this genus.[2]