Subterranean Sheetweb Spider
Phanetta subterranea (Emerton, 1875)

Taxonomy

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class

Troglobiont

Realm

Terrestrial

Troglomorphy

Troglomorphic

Distribution

Type locality

Wyandotte Cave, Crawford Co. IN

Range

Known from 98 counties across 12 states across four karst regions.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

Counties

Alabama

Colbert, DeKalb, Jackson, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, St. Clair

Georgia

Clinch, Dade, Floyd, Walker

Illinois

Carroll, Hardin, Jackson, Johnson, Monroe, Saline, St. Clair, Union

Indiana

Crawford, Dubois, Harrison, Monroe, Washington

Kentucky

Allen, Barren, Bell, Boyle, Breckinridge, Carter, Crittenden, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Hardin, Harlan, Hart, Jackson, Lee, Menifee, Monroe, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Pike, Powell, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Warren, Wayne, Whitley, Woodford

Missouri

Perry, St. Genevieve

Tennessee

Bedford, Blount, Campbell, Cannon, Claiborne, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, Davidson, DeKalb, Dickson, Fentress, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Jackson, Lincoln, Marion, Meigs, Montgomery, Overton, Perry, Pickett, Rhea, Rutherford, Sequatchie, Smith, Stewart, Sullivan, Van Buren, Warren, White, Wilson

Virginia

Bland, Highland, Lee, Rockingham, Russell, Scott, Shenandoah

Karst regions

Appalachians, Interior Low Plateau, Other, Ozarks

Genetics

Molecular resources

47 sequences, retrieved 23 August 2026. Counts change as sequences are deposited. Search GenBank.

Download all 47 sequence records (CSV) Accession, marker, molecule type, length, GenBank definition and a direct link.

Specimens

Collections holding material

9 cataloged lots in 5 collections. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 9 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

NatureServe

G5 Secure

Global rank last reviewed 21 August 2002.

Subnational ranks

Alabama

SNR Unranked

Kentucky

S4 Apparently Secure

Missouri

S1 Critically Imperiled

Pennsylvania

SNR Unranked

Tennessee

S4 Apparently Secure

Virginia

S4 Apparently Secure

West Virginia

S3 Vulnerable

Georgia

SNR Unranked

Illinois

SNR Unranked

Indiana

S5 Secure

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Other resources

Catalogue of Life

4FTTQ

GBIF

2136252

ITIS

864906

iNaturalist

153701

NCBI Taxonomy

3153309

References

• Archer, A.F. 1940a. Some cave spiders of Alabama. Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science 12: 28.
• Banta, A.M. 1907. The fauna of Mayfield's Cave. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 67: 1–114. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/60987. details
• Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1971. Ecological studies in the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky. II. The Ecosystem. Annales de Speleologie 26: 47–96. doi:10.5038/1827-806X.3.1.10
• Cooper, J.E. 1968b. Shelta Cave, a biological marvel. National Speleological Society News 26: 33–35.
• Cooper, J.E. 1975. Ecological and behavioral studies in Shelta Cave, Alabama, with emphasis on decapod crustaceans. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA. 364 pp.
• Dixon, G.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2011. Cave-obligate biodiversity on the campus of Sewanee: The University of the South, Franklin County, Tennessee. Southeastern Naturalist 10: 251–266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263008. details
• Godwin, J.C. 2008. Biological inventory of the cave and karst systems of The Nature Conservancy's Sharp-Bingham Mountain Preserve. Alabama Natural Heritage Program, Auburn, Alabama, USA. 40 pp.
• Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1979. Caves and associated fauna of Eastern Kentucky, Volume 3. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 130 pp.
• Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1980. Caves and associated fauna of the Western Kentucky coal field, Volume 2. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 114 pp.
• Kennedy, K.A., Zigler, K.S., Cramphorn, B., Harden, C.W., Helf, K., Lewis, J.J., Malabad, T.E., Milne, M.A., Niemiller, M.L. & Stephen, C.D.R. 2024. Remarkably low genetic diversity in the widespread cave spider Phanetta subterranea (Araneae, Linyphiidae). Subterranean Biology 50: 105–118. doi:10.3897/subtbiol.50.135200
• Lawson, K.M., Schotz, A.R., Jenkins, A.J., Armbruster, J.W., Black, C., Callahan, M., Goertzen, L., Hansen, C., Stephen, C.D.R., Werneke, D., Mendonca, M. & Molina, E. 2021. Planning level survey of Redstone Arsenal for at-risk species and ecologically significant communities. Environmental Management Division, U.S. Army Garrison, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, USA. 402 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2004. Interstate 66 karst faunal study. Environmental Impact Statement. 17 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2005a. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2009b. Eight new cavernicolous species of the milliped genus Pseudotremia (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida: Cleidogonidae). In: Roble, S.M. & Mithcell, J.C. (eds), A Lifetime of Contributions to Myriapodology and the Natural History of Virginia: A Festschrift in Honor of Richard L. Hoffman’s 80th Birthday. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 16, pp. 171–186. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, Virginia, USA.
• Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2005. Inventory of the subterranean fauna of Tims Ford State Park, Franklin County, Tennessee. Tennesee Natural Heritage Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 28 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2007. A biological reconnaissance of selected caves in the Highland Rim area of central Tennessee. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 42 pp.
• Lewis, J.J., Moss, P., Tecic, D. & Nelson, M.E. 2003. A conservation focused inventory of subterranean invertebrates of the southwestern Illinois karst. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 65: 9–21.
• Lewis, J.J., Whitaker, J.O. & Krantz, G.W. 2010. A biological reconnaissance of the invertebrate fauna of twelve Tennessee caves with notes on the guanophilic mites of the genus Macrocheles. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 85: 53–61.
• Mays, J.D. 2002. A systematic approach to sampling the arthropod assemblage of Gregorys Cave, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA. 83 pp.
• Nicholas, G. 1960. Checklist of macroscopic troglobitic organisms of the United States. The American Midland Naturalist 64: 123–160. doi:10.2307/2422897
• Niemiller, M.L., Anderson, C.L., Maxwell, E.C., Midgette, H., Quering, C., Richards, M., Wilson, K. & Wirwa, N. 2025b. A noteworthy range extension of the federally endangered Alabama Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae) south of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. Southeastern Naturalist 24: N47-N58. doi:10.1656/058.024.0403
• Niemiller, M.L., Fenolio, D.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2012b. The obligate cave fauna of Georgia. Bulletin of the Georgia Speleological Survey 2012: 6–12.
• Niemiller, M.L., Slay, M.E., Inebnit, T., Miller, B., Tobin, B., Cramphorn, B., Hinkle, A., Jones, B.D., Mann, N. & Niemiller, K.D.K. 2023a. Fern Cave: a hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the Interior Low Plateau karst region of Alabama in the southeastern United States. Diversity 15: 633. doi:10.3390/d15050633
• Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
• Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hinkle, A., Stephen, C.D.R., Cramphorn, B., Higgs, J., Mann, N., Miller, B.T., Niemiller, K.D.K., Smallwood, K. & Hardy, J. 2023b. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System: a new hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the southern Cumberland Plateau of south-central Tennessee, USA. Diversity 15: 801. doi:10.3390/d15070801
• Nolfi, D.C. 2009. Review and assessment of known cavernicoles and rare epigean biology of karst and caves, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, Texas, USA, Volume 3: 1323–1328.
• Page, G. 2021. Troglofauna of Van Buren and White County: a survey of four caves in the mideastern Cumberland Plateau. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. 18 pp.
• Peck, S.B. 1989. The cave fauna of Alabama. Part I. The terrestrial invertebrates (excluding insects). National Speleological Society Bulletin 51: 11–33.
• Peck, S.B. & Christiansen, K. 1990. Evolution and zoogeography of the invertebrate cave faunas of the Driftless Area of the upper Mississippi River Valley of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Zoology 68: 73–88. doi:10.1139/z90-012
• Peck, S.B. & Lewis, J.J. 1978. Zoogeography and evolution of the subterranean invertebrate faunas of Illinois and southeastern Missouri. National Speleological Society Bulletin 40: 39–63.
• Reeves, W.K. 2000. Invertebrate cavernicoles of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 116: 334–343. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24335885. details
• Trumbore, L.E., Reynolds, R.J., Thomas, S.C., Orndorff, W., Cramphorn, B., Gladstone, N.S., Harden, C.W., Lewis, J.J., Milne, M.A., Ober, K.A., Shear, W.A., Stephen, C.D.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2024. Cave biodiversity of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 86: 13–24. doi:10.4311/2022LSC0116
• Wakefield, K.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2012. Obligate subterranean fauna of Carter State Natural Area, Franklin County, Tennessee. Speleolobiology Notes 4: 24–28.
• Webb, D.W., Taylor, S.J. & Krejca, J.K. 1993. The biological resources of Illinois caves and other subterranean environments. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois, USA. 143 pp.
• Zigler, K.S., Niemiller, M.L., Stephen, C.D.R., Ayala, B.N., Milne, M.A., Gladstone, N.S., Engel, A.S., Jensen, J.B., Camp, C.D., Ozier, J.C. & Cressler, A. 2020. Biodiversity from caves and other subterranean habitats of Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 82: 125–167. doi:10.4311/2019LSC0125

How to cite this account

Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

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