Spiky Field Spider

Pararaneus cyrtoscapus is an African endemic species originally described in 1898 as Araneus cyrtoscapus from the type locality Estcourt in South Africa. The species has also been collected from six other African countries including Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Socotra, and Zimbabwe. In South Africa, the species is known from eight provinces and occurs in more than 10 protected areas at altitudes ranging from 1 to 1,593 m above sea level. The species has a widespread distribution across the country, with records from Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and Western Cape provinces.

The species is an orb-weaver with webs made in the field layer. The mature spider makes a typical vertical orb-web while the immature spiders make a horizontal web with a defective frame that is cone-shaped with threads pulling the hub out of the plane of the frame. The species is commonly sampled with a sweep net from the Fynbos, Forest, Grassland, Nama Karoo, Savanna and Thicket biomes. It has also been sampled from avocado, citrus and pistachio orchards and tomato fields.