CreatureData

Box spider

Crossopriza lyoni (Blackwall, 1867)

Status not recordedspiders

The box spider (Crossopriza lyoni) is a species in the family Pholcidae, order Araneae. Recorded adults reach 5.72 mm in length. Source checklists list it for 3 countries: Argentina, Brazil and Madagascar.

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Quick facts about the box spider

Weight
Not recorded
Length
5.72 mm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
3 countriessrc for Countries on record

How big is the box spider?

BOX SPIDER · LENGTH 5.72 MMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 5.72 mm, the recorded maximum length of the box spider is about 0.3% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the box spider live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The box spider is listed for 3 countries.

ArgentinaBrazilMadagascar
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Argentina
  2. Brazil
  3. Madagascar

Why a country list is not a range map

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the box spider as introduced in 4 countries.

  1. Belgium
  2. Japan
  3. South Africa
  4. United States

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the box spider endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the box spider classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classArachnida
  4. orderAraneae
  5. familyPholcidae
  6. genusCrossopriza
  7. SpeciesCrossopriza lyoni (Blackwall, 1867)

Synonyms Crossopriza brasiliensis, Crossopriza coreana, Crossopriza francoisi, Crossopriza guayanesa, Crossopriza moraensis, Crossopriza mucronata, Crossopriza nigrescens, Crossopriza stridulans, Smeringopus lyoni, Tibiosa caracensis, Tibiosa casanaimensis, Tibiosa coreana, Tibiosa guayanesa, Tibiosa moraensis

Other names and names in other languages (14)
  • Hump-backed daddy-long-legs spiderEnglish
  • Tailed cellar spiderEnglish
  • Tailed daddy longlegs spiderEnglish
  • třesavka kosmopolitníCzech
  • MoskitozitterspinneGerman
  • Araignée spectre à cul platFrench
  • Ragno ballerino gobboItalian
  • オダカユウレイグモJapanese
  • Gepunte tropentrilspinDutch
  • 萊氏壺蛛Chinese
  • Ragno ballerino dalla codaItalian
  • 壺腹蛛Chinese
  • 萊氏壺腹蛛Chinese
  • 里昂壺腹蛛Chinese

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the box spider

Other species in the same genus Crossopriza.

CompareBox spider vs Crossopriza dhofarBox spider vs Crossopriza ghulBox spider vs Crossopriza ibnsinaiBox spider vs Crossopriza illizi

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the box spider?

An adult box spider measures 5.72 mm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the box spider live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the box spider for 3 countries: Argentina, Brazil and Madagascar. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the box spider an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the box spider as introduced in 4 countries: Belgium, Japan, South Africa and United States, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

What kind of animal is the box spider?

The box spider (Crossopriza lyoni) belongs to the family Pholcidae in the order Araneae.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Box spider (Crossopriza lyoni). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/box-spider

MLA

“Box spider (Crossopriza lyoni).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/box-spider.

BibTeX
@misc{box_spider_2026,
  title = {Box spider (Crossopriza lyoni)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/box-spider},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}