Diving bell spider
Amazing fact
Underwater, a water spider looks silver because of the air bubble around its abdomen.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.
An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Underwater, a water spider looks silver because of the air bubble around its abdomen.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Diving bell spider
- Scientific name
- Argyroneta aquatica
- Japanese name
- ミズグモ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Class
- Arachnida
- Order
- Araneae
- Family
- Cybaeidae
- Genus
- Argyroneta
A spider that spends its whole life underwater, living in lakes, ponds, marshes and slow-moving streams.
Long hairs on its abdomen and hind legs hold bubbles of air, which let it breathe underwater.
It spins a dome-shaped web on water plants and fills it with air bubbles; in this air room it eats and lays its eggs.
How the Diving bell spider lives
It brings its abdomen above the surface and carries air down. A female extends her front legs from her nest into the water and pounces when threads vibrate. It also molts inside its nest.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Body length: about 10 mmLength: males 7.8–18.7 mm, females 7.8–13.1 mm井の頭自然文化園University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Aquatic small animals such as tubificid worms and insects井の頭自然文化園
- Range
- Palearctic, including Japan, Eurasia north of the Himalayas, and Africa north of the Sahara井の頭自然文化園
- Conservation status in Japan
- Vulnerable (VU)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020
Where the Diving bell spider has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ミズグモ
- 简体中文
- 水蛛
- 繁體中文
- 水蛛
- 한국어
- 물거미
- Español
- Araña de agua
- Français
- Argyronète
- Deutsch
- Wasserspinne
- Italiano
- Ragno palombaro
- العربية
- عنكبوت مائي
- Русский
- Водяной паук
- Türkçe
- Su örümceği
- ไทย
- แมงมุมน้ำ
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 井の頭自然文化園 — ミズグモChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Argyroneta aquaticaChecked: 2026-11-03
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
Report a mistakeEXHIBIT INFORMATION
Places that keep or show the Diving bell spider
Zoos, aquariums and other places whose official websites say they keep or show this animal.
Kanto
Displays can change with the animals’ health and the seasons. Check each facility’s official website before you go.
RELATIVES
Others in Araneae
MORE TO MEET
