Metellina mengei is a spider of the family Tetragnathidae that is found in Europe up to Georgia. It was once considered a form of M. segmentata that occurs in spring. M. mengei is much rarer than M. segmentata.Bellmann, H. (1997). Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas. Kosmos.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Simonneau et al. 2016Birkhofer et al. 2017Macías-Hernández et al. 2020Entling et al. 2007Buchar & Růžička 2002Henriksen & Hilmo 2015Staręga et al. 2001SLU 2020Bruun & Lissner 2019Hyvärinen et al. 2019Liste France 2018Harvey et al. 2017Maelfait et al. 1998Řezáč et al. 2015Blick et al. 2016Blick & Scheidler 2004Kielhorn 2017Finch 2004Martin 2012Buchholz et al. 2011Hiebsch & Tolke 1996Sacher & Platen 2004Lemke et al. 2013Nentwig et al. 2018Cardoso et al. 2011
Morphometry6
Body length♀5.21·♂4.11 mm
Cephalothorax height♀0.6·♂0.43 mm
Cephalothorax length♀2.37·♂1.81 mm
Cephalothorax width♀1.89·♂1.53 mm
Fang length0.44 mm
Tibia I length♀2.83·♂2.52 mm
Predation2
Hunting guildorb web weavers
Simple hunting guild classificationweb-building
Ecology9
Ballooningyes
Circadian activity0.5 mm
Light0.375 mm
Light 2partly shaded
Moisture 10.75 mm
Moisture 2dry
Regional IUCN Red List categoryLeast Concern (LC)
Regional non-IUCN Red List categorySave or at low risk (SA)
Stratum0.33 mm
05DNA & barcoding154 specimens
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Metellina mengei has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens154
BINs2
Marker genes2
eDNA detections453
Countries15
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P658 bp consensus145 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 98% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 12 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.1%
Haplotypes15
BINs2
Most divergent pair17.3%
EuropeAsia
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P18S-3P
animal barcoderibosomal
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type10 869 records
Wild obs. + sensor8 423
Museum / vouchered2 427
Cultivated / captive10
Other9
Origin
Native186
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO20 288 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy60% within 1 km
≤100 m 3 209≤1 km 1 496≤10 km 3 114>10 km 23
7 842 georeferenced · 581 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor8 423
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy26% within 1 km
≤100 m 292≤1 km 186≤10 km 1 266>10 km 85
1 829 georeferenced · 598 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence2 427
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy
no georeferenced coordinates · 10 records without
Open the mapnot free-living10
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions15 of 44 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Brussels, BE
793
Helsinki, FI
401
SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record
94
Staatliches Museum fuer Naturkunde Karlsruhe (State Museum of Natural History)location not on record
80
Bonn, DE
65
Copenhagen, DK
62
Museum of Zoology at the University of Bergen, Invertebrate Collectionlocation not on record
45
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record
42
Frankfurt am Main
36
Bern, CH
33
Ekaterinburg, RU
31
Akademia Pomorska w Słupskulocation not on record
30
NTNU-VMlocation not on record
26
Tartu, EE
26
ARTlocation not on record
22
Paro, BT
21
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE) UB RASlocation not on record
15
Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record
14
Tilburg, NL
14
Uniwersytet w Białymstokulocation not on record
12
10
South Kensington, GB
8
Rovaniemi, FI
8
SNSDlocation not on record
7
Prioksko-Terrasnyi Biosphere Reservelocation not on record
7
Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record
7
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE), UB RASlocation not on record
7
Senckenberg Museum fuer Naturkunde Goerlitzlocation not on record
7
SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record
5
MBRPlocation not on record
4
MZLUlocation not on record
4
neflocation not on record
3
Washington, US
3
BioFokuslocation not on record
2
SGAV-and-NHMDlocation not on record
2
European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)location not on record
2
ZSMlocation not on record
2
Natural History Museum, Londonlocation not on record
2
Metsähallituslocation not on record
2
Wellcome Sanger Institutelocation not on record
1
Buenos Aires, AR
1
University of Tokyo, Department of Zoologylocation not on record
1
Tromso University Museumlocation not on record
1
FETSlocation not on record
1
44 institutions · 1 959 of 2 427 vouchered records shown · 468 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA453 detections
Where the DNA of Metellina mengei was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found453
Studies independent surveys5
Countries14
Verifiable raw sequence linked288
Signal confidence: moderateweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 453 detections have coordinates
Open the map14 countries0
Mischwald, auf niedriger VegetationFeuchter BuchenwaldWaldsaumRegenmoor-ReliktflächeFelswand nahe Wasserfallhaavet I fuktig starr og gras
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median11.5 °C 6.10–16.2
Seasonal swing summer↔winter18.8 °C
Max temp (day)15.1 °C 9.00–19.5
Min temp (night)7.60 °C 1.60–12.9
Precipitation67.2 mm/mo 38.3–99.4
Air humidity60.8 % 56.4–65.7
Moisture balance-27.3 mm/mo -52.8–44.1
Vapour deficit532 Pa 355–743
Wind speed3.10 m/s 2.40–4.50
Cloud cover46.1 % 35.6–56.2
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 446 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation5 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility10 869 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI453 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics154 specimens↗
World Spider Trait DBMasaryk University17 traits · 25 refs↗
World Spider CatalogNaturhist. Museum Bernworld catalog↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗