eTawau > Spiders of Borneo > Web-building spiders > Theridiidae > Famakytta > Famakytta flavescens

Famakytta flavescens (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1880)

A small orange dewdrop spider with silver patches, living in the webs of bigger spiders and stealing their food. Formerly Argyrodes flavescens.

A female Famakytta flavescens hanging under a silk line against a grey background: a high, glossy orange abdomen with white-silver patches and a dark tip, a small orange body in front and long thin dark legs.
The 2026 female at the AKI Backpackers inn, beside Kinabalu Park, 21 October 2026, 11:00.
Classification
Order Araneae · Family Theridiidae (comb-footed spiders) · Subfamily Argyrodinae · Genus Famakytta Pett & Agnarsson, 2025 · Species Famakytta flavescens (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1880)
New name
Until 2025 this spider was Argyrodes flavescens. In 2025 Pett, Ferreira & Agnarsson described the new genus Famakytta and moved it there, together with its look-alike Argyrodes miniaceus (now Famakytta miniacea). This site's older pages still use the old name.
Distribution
India and Sri Lanka to Japan and New Guinea (World Spider Catalog)
Records on this site
Four, 2009–2026: Bukit Gemok, Tawau (8 and 9 July 2009), the Tawau River Triangle (12 July 2009, name not confirmed) and the AKI Backpackers inn by Kinabalu Park (21 October 2026).
Size
Females 3.5–5 mm (the photographer's figure for the 2009 females); the 2026 female about 5–6 mm, estimated from a pin: see Record 4.

How to recognise it

The colour changes with the light. The same 2026 female looked bright orange in daylight and dark red-brown under indoor light (Record 4). Famakytta miniacea can also have white side spots and a dark spot at the tip, so a photograph alone may not separate the two. The name of the 2026 female comes from iNaturalist (observation 410456743): genus Famakytta, with F. flavescens as the top species suggestion. The names of the 2009 spiders are the photographer's own.

A thief in another spider's web

Dewdrop spiders (subfamily Argyrodinae) move into the webs of bigger spiders and take a share of the food caught there. On 21 October 2026 at the AKI Backpackers inn, two small males were feeding on a grasshopper that a big web spider had wrapped in silk. The big spider, which looks like a golden orb-weaver (Nephila, not identified), lived in a hole in the tree trunk behind a tangle of dead leaves, came out for a moment to feed and went back into the hole.

Records

Record 4 · 21 October 2026 · AKI Backpackers inn, Kinabalu Park NEW

A female and two males in the web of a big spider

A grasshopper wrapped in silk in a web, with two small orange spiders on it: one at the top among the silk, one hanging below.
09:32, two males on the big spider's wrapped grasshopper.
The female from the side on a silk line against a dark background: glossy orange abdomen and long legs stretched forward.
10:52, the female on a silk line.
The female from above in a white container beside a pin with a round pink head; her abdomen looks dark red-brown with cream patches under the indoor light.
11:10, from above beside the pin (head 3.90 mm).
Close view of the female's abdomen: shiny orange with white-silver patches and a dark spot at the tip.
11:00, the abdomen close up.
DateWednesday 21 October 2026, 09:32–11:10 (camera clocks)
PlaceAKI Backpackers inn, about 100 m from the entrance of Kinabalu Park, Sabah
WebThe web of a big spider (looks like a golden orb-weaver, Nephila; not identified) against a tree trunk, with a tangle of dead leaves and twigs in front of its hole
NumberOne female photographed, and two males on the host's prey. Several more females and males on the same tree, in different webs.
BehaviourThe female never stopped moving
SizeAbout 5–6 mm, legs not included (not measured; estimated from a pin, see below)
CamerasCanon IXUS 285 HS; Panasonic DMC-LX5 (the host spider)
ObserverWong Fook Yee. Photographed in a white container and released back where she was found.
iNaturalistobservation 410456743

The host. The big spider lived in a hole in the trunk and would not come out to be photographed, except once, at 10:48, when it came out to feed on the grasshopper and then went back into the hole. Earlier, at 09:32, two small males were already on the same wrapped grasshopper, taking their share; the females were nearby, out of the frame. Several kinds of web spider live at the inn; on the same morning the photographer recorded Argiope reinwardti by the solar lamp.

How the size was estimated. The female was photographed in a white container beside a pin. A pin from the same box measures 3.90 mm across the head with calipers (measured at home on 24 October; there was no caliper in the field). Against the pin head, the female's body is about 5.5 mm long in a photograph from above and about 5.6 mm in one from the side, so about 5–6 mm. This is larger than the usual figures for the species, so treat it as an estimate.

Record 3 · 12 July 2009 · Tawau River Triangle NAME NOT CONFIRMED

Two dark spiders in one web among the oil palms

A spider in a web seen from below: an orange front body, long black legs and a large, all-black glossy abdomen.
15:24:54, the spider with an all-black abdomen.
A slender spider in the middle of a web with oil palms behind: a small dark abdomen, an orange body and very long legs banded orange and black.
15:24:24, the second spider: small abdomen, long banded legs.

Two spiders in one web, photographed at 15:23–15:25 with a Canon PowerShot A470, in the Tawau River Triangle (whether inside or just outside the Triangle was not recorded). The photographer filed them with this species. They do not look like the other records: one has an all-black abdomen without silver bands, the other a small abdomen and long banded legs (it may be a male, or a different spider). Name not confirmed; size not recorded.

Record 2 · 9 July 2009 · Bukit Gemok, Tawau

An orange female on a weedy plant

A female hanging in her web against green leaves: a high, glossy orange abdomen with a dark spot near the tip, orange front body and dark legs.
09:37, the high orange abdomen and its dark spot.
The same female from the side beside a green stem: orange abdomen with small white patches, legs dark with orange joints.
09:40, from the side, beside the stem.

One female, photographed at 09:32–09:42 with a Canon PowerShot A470, first on graph paper and then back on a weedy plant. Size not recorded.

Record 1 · 8 July 2009 · Bukit Gemok, Tawau

The first record: two females in one morning

A female under a green stem: a large, shiny dark red-brown abdomen with broad white-silver bands and a black front edge.
10:28, the first female: dark red-brown with silver bands.
A second female hanging below a dry twig: a bright orange, shiny abdomen with white-silver patches and dark legs.
12:34, the second female: bright orange.

Two females at Bukit Gemok on the same morning, photographed with a Canon PowerShot A470: a darker one on a weedy plant at 10:17–10:39 and a bright orange one on a dry twig at 11:50–12:44. Both were also photographed on graph paper. Females 3.5–5 mm (the photographer's figure).

Earlier pages on this site gave the place of this record as "PUI YUK" and called the orange spider Argyrodes miniaceus. The photographer corrected the place to Bukit Gemok on 24 October 2026; the photo folders say the same.

Related pages

Photographs © Wong Fook Yee. Dates and times from the cameras; places, 2009 sizes, names of the 2009 spiders and the account of 2026 are the photographer's own. Classification, the new genus and distribution: World Spider Catalog (Natural History Museum Bern); Pett, B. L., Ferreira, E. & Agnarsson, I. (2025), Megadiverse Madagascar: new species and genera of argyrodine spiders, Insect Systematics and Diversity 9(6): ixaf047. Page built 24 October 2026; it replaces the 2017 page Argyrodes flavescens.