Spiders in Nigeria

What spiders live in Nigeria?

Nigeria stretches from the mangrove creeks of the Niger Delta to the thorn scrub of the Lake Chad basin, and its spiders change with every step north. The southern lowland rainforest of Cross River, Omo and Okomu is humid all year and holds the richest fauna; the Sudan and Sahel belts around Sokoto, Kano and Maiduguri are dry and dominated by burrowers and ground hunters. West African arachnids remain poorly surveyed, so the published national list is far shorter than the real fauna rather than a measure of it.

The spiders that catch your eye first are the orb-weavers. Banded-legged golden orb-web spiders, Trichonephila senegalensis, sling metre-wide webs with a yellow sheen across farm paths and compound gaps — close relatives of the golden silk orb-weaver and just as harmless. Smaller Neoscona and Argiope orb-weavers rebuild their wheels nightly over hedges and cassava, and walking into one before dawn is a Nigerian rite of passage.

At eye level on plaster and concrete you get jumping spiders: stocky Hyllus species with headlamp eyes, the widespread pantropical jumping spider, and grey wall-hugging Menemerus. On bare soil, wolf spiders run down prey on foot, their eyes throwing back a green glint under a torch. Indoors the ceiling-corner tangle is usually Parasteatoda tepidariorum or a long-legged cellar spider, and underground in forest soil are the baboon spiders.

Which Nigerian spiders are actually dangerous?

One group, and it is a small one. Widow spiders of the genus Latrodectus — button spiders, in Anglophone Africa — are the only Nigerian spiders whose venom is medically significant. The one most often turned up is the brown widow, Latrodectus geometricus, mottled tan to near-black with an orange hourglass beneath and a spiky, golf-ball-like egg sac that gives it away even when the spider is hiding. Darker African button spiders occur in drier northern country.

None of them hunts you. Button spiders hang upside down in messy, low tangle webs built where nothing is disturbed: under stacked blocks and timber, inside meter boxes and disused drums, beneath outdoor seats and generator housings. Bites happen when a hand or a bare leg presses one against skin.

The result is latrodectism — cramping muscle pain that starts at the bite and spreads to the abdomen, back and thighs, with sweating, nausea and restlessness. Brown widow bites are usually milder and often stay local. Either way it is treatable with pain relief and supportive care in a clinic, not a death sentence; our guide to the world's most venomous spiders gives the wider picture.

Recluse spiders may occur in Nigerian warehouses and old buildings, but confirmed records are thin and bites rarer. Slow ulcerating sores blamed on spiders here are far more often bacterial infections, and need a doctor rather than a spider chart.

Nigeria's baboon spiders

"Baboon spider" is Africa's name for a tarantula, after the thick, finger-like feet. Nigeria's are burrowers of the genus Hysterocrates, forest-floor spiders that line a deep silk-walled tunnel and sit in the entrance after dark. The Hercules baboon spider, Hysterocrates hercules, is the famous one — a huge reddish-brown species described from a Nigerian specimen and effectively unseen since, which is why photographs claiming to show it deserve caution. Its smaller relatives are far more likely to be what you actually dig up.

Unlike New World tarantulas, African species cannot flick irritating hairs, so a cornered baboon spider rears up and bites. That bite hurts — deep pain, sometimes cramping for a day or two — but it is not life-threatening and needs no antivenom. Photograph them; do not handle them.

Where you actually meet them

Houses and compounds

Louvre windows, open eaves, outside kitchens and security lights make Nigerian buildings excellent spider habitat, because every light is an insect trap. Expect jumping spiders on sunlit walls, cellar spiders in bathroom corners and small tangle webs where wall meets ceiling. Our house spiders guide covers that group; almost none of it warrants insecticide.

Yards, farms and bush

Cassava, plantain, cocoa and oil-palm plots and compound hedges carry the big orb webs and the crab and lynx spiders that ambush from flowers. This is also where button spiders live — in the forgotten clutter at the edge of the yard, not in the house.

Forest and savanna

Southern forest holds the burrowing baboon spiders, bark-camouflaged Caerostris and the largest orb-weavers. Northward the fauna shifts to burrowers that sit out the heat by day.

When are spiders most obvious in Nigeria?

There is no frost anywhere in Nigeria, so spiders are present all year and rainfall sets the rhythm. The southern rains run from roughly March or April to October, with a short drier break in August; the north has one wet season, about May to September. Insects explode with the rain and so do webs — late in the wet season is when orb webs are biggest.

The harmattan, the dry dusty wind from December to February, is the quiet stretch. Webs collapse, spiders retreat into burrows, bark cracks and buildings, and this is when large wanderers most often turn up indoors looking for moisture.

Common Spiders in Nigeria

• Common House Spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum)
• Local Jumping Spider (Hyllus nigeriensis)
• Nigerian Wolf Spiders (Lycosidae spp)

Biggest Spiders in Nigeria

• Hercules baboon spider (Hysterocrates hercules)

Most Venomous Spiders in Nigeria

Cobweb Spiders/Tangle Web Spiders (Theridiidae)

Cobweb SpidersWidow (Latrodectus)A guide to the widow spiders (Latrodectus): how to identify the genus, the species you may meet, the gumfoot web, and how serious a widow biCobweb SpidersRedback Spider (Latrodectus hasseltii)Identify the redback spider (Latrodectus hasseltii): the female's red stripe, the gum-footed web, where it lives, and how dangerous its bite

Sicariidae

Sicariidae SpidersBrown Recluse Spider (Loxosceles reclusa)How to identify a brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa): six eyes, violin mark, where it lives, and what a recluse bite really does to skin.

Less Venomous Spiders in Nigeria

Tarantulas

TarantulasUruguay Black Beauty Tarantula (Grammostola quirogai)Identify the Uruguay black beauty tarantula (Grammostola quirogai): size, its two colour morphs, burrow, range in Uruguay, and how harmless TarantulasHercules Baboon (Hysterocrates Hercules)Hercules baboon spider (Hysterocrates hercules): what the Nigerian museum material shows, why it was never rediscovered, and how Old World b

Species wrongly listed for Nigeria, and living with the rest

Three names carried over from older versions of this page do not occur in Nigeria at all. The redback, Latrodectus hasselti, is Australian; Nigeria's equivalents are the brown widow and the African button spiders. The brown recluse, Loxosceles reclusa, is restricted to the central and southern United States, whatever a photo caption says. And the Uruguay black beauty tarantula, Grammostola anthracina, is South American; Nigeria's theraphosids are the burrowing Hysterocrates baboon spiders.

Two more points. Calling every Nigerian cobweb spider "highly venomous" is wrong — the family is mostly tiny and harmless, and only Latrodectus stands out. And harvestmen, abundant in damp bathrooms, are not spiders: one fused oval body, no silk, no venom glands.

• Wear gloves and closed shoes when you shift blockwork, timber, drums or tyres that have stood untouched — that is button-spider habitat.
• Shake out shoes, towels and clothes left outside, especially during the harmattan.
• Screen windows and seal gaps instead of spraying; the spiders in your ceiling are eating mosquitoes.
• Photograph a baboon spider from a metre away and leave it in its burrow.

For comparison across the region, see our guide to the spiders of Ghana.