Spiders of the genus Argyrodes are mostly tropical and subtropical. Some, perhaps all, live as commensals in webs of larger spiders, especially in webs of Nephila clavipes (Linnaeus) and species of Gasteracanthaand Argiope, and sometimes of Latrodectus, Agelenopsis, Allepeira and others. Often large numbers of individuals, sometimes including more than one species, are found in the same host web. Twenty-three specimens including A. elevatus, A. cochleaforma and A. cordillera were collected from one Gasteracanthaweb near Banos, Ecuador (Exline, 1945). A pair of A. glooosus and a pair of A. cancellatus were collected by Exline in a web of Nephila clavipes near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in 1959. Argyrodes usually feed on small insects in the host web, the small spiders and small insects apparently being unnoticed by the large host. However, Argyrodes have been observed a few times to prey on their hosts. Exline watched A. fictilium feed on its Araneus host, and Archer (1946) reported A. fictilium preying on Frontinella communis (Hentz) in Alabama. Lamore (1958) observed A. trigonum attack and feed on a host Allepeira lemniscata (Walckenaer).Argyrodes may live in host webs without constructing any web of their own, but often they add fine lines between the spirals of an orb-web, and occasionally they live independently, making their own small theridiid webs.
