Mouse spider
Scotophaeus blackwalli (Thorell, 1871)
Status not recordedspiders
The mouse spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli) is a species in the family Gnaphosidae, order Araneae. Recorded adults reach 1.17 cm in length.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the mouse spider
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- 4.7 mm – 1.17 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forest, human_modifiedsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the mouse spider?
Where does the mouse spider live?
Not recorded
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the mouse spider as introduced in 3 countries.
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 mouse 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 mouse spider classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classArachnida
- orderAraneae
- familyGnaphosidae
- genusScotophaeus
- SpeciesScotophaeus blackwalli (Thorell, 1871)
Synonyms Drassodes blackwalli, Drassodes californicus, Drassodes voigti, Drassus blackwalli, Drassus blackwalli, Drassus furtadoi, Drassus gotlandicus, Drassus immundus, Drassus ravidus, Drassus sericeus, Drassus voigtii, Herpyllus blackwalli, Herpyllus blackwalli, Herpyllus pius, Scotophaeus californicus, Scotophaeus furtadoi, Scotophaeus pius, Scotophaeus sericeus, Scotophaeus voigti
Other names and names in other languages (9)
- skálovka BlackwallovaCzech
- museedderkopDanish
- Hus-museedderkopDanish
- Kleine MausspinneGerman
- husmuseedderkoppNorwegian Bokmål
- StalmuursluiperDutch
- Aranha-ratoPortuguese
- skaliarka BlackwallovaSlovak
- mindre musspindelSwedish
Relatives of the mouse spider
Other species in the same genus Scotophaeus.
CompareMouse spider vs Marleyi's golden ground spiderMouse spider vs Purcell golden ground spiderMouse spider vs Scotophaeus aculeatusMouse spider vs Scotophaeus affinis
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the mouse spider?
An adult mouse spider measures 4.7 mm – 1.17 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the mouse spider an invasive species?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the mouse spider as introduced in 3 countries: Canada, South Africa and United States, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.
What kind of animal is the mouse spider?
The mouse spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli) belongs to the family Gnaphosidae in the order Araneae.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.
- Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Mouse spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/mouse-spider
“Mouse spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/mouse-spider.
@misc{mouse_spider_2026,
title = {Mouse spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/mouse-spider},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}