Yellow sac spider
FemaleC. furculatum
Cheiracanthium sp., Pateros, Washington
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Cheiracanthiidae
Genus:	Cheiracanthium C. L. Koch, 1839[1]
Type species
C. punctorium (Villers, 1789)
Species
212,see text
Synonyms[1]
ChiracanthopsMello-Leitão, 1942[2] HelebionaBenoit, 1977[3]

Cheiracanthium, commonly calledyellow sac spiders, is agenus ofaraneomorph spiders in the familyCheiracanthiidae, and was first described byCarl Ludwig Koch in 1839.^[4]

• 
  C. danieli

Cheiracanthium is primarily anOld World genus, with many species found from northernEurope toJapan, fromSouthern Africa toIndia andAustralia. The only known species in theNew World areC. inclusum andC. mildei. While the former also occurs inAfrica andRéunion, the latter is found in theHolarctic region andArgentina. They can also be found in the lower mainland ofBritish Columbia,Canada.^[1]

The genus is quite diverse inAfrica and at least three or four species are known to occur inEgyptiancotton fields alone.^[1]

• 
  The eye arrangement of spiders in the genusCheiracanthium

They are usually pale in colour, and have anabdomen that can range from yellow to beige. Both sexes range in size from 5 to 10 millimetres (0.20 to 0.39 in).

They are unique among common house spiders because theirtarsi do not point either outward, like members ofTegenaria, or inward, like members ofAraneus, making them easier to identify.

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A theory that these spiders were attracted to the smell of gasoline was involved in aseries of consumer vehicle callbacks in which spiderwebs had blocked fuel lines, but it has since been disproven by a study which found that the juvenile yellow sac spiders were attracted to the hose material itself.^[5]

Though they are beneficial predators in agricultural fields, they are also known to be mildly venomous to humans. Painful bites may be incurred from species such asC. punctorium inEurope,C. mildei in Europe andNorth America,C. inclusum in theAmericas,C. lawrencei inSouth Africa andC. japonicum inJapan.^[6]Cheiracanthium venom is purportedlynecrotic, and can causepain,swelling, andlesions in humans,^[6] but the necrotic nature and severity of its bite has been disputed.^[7] A study of twenty confirmedCheiracanthium bites in the United States and Australia found that none resulted in necrosis, and a review of the international literature on 39 verified Cheiracanthium bites found only one case of mild necrosis in the European speciesC. punctorium.^[7]

• 
  femaleC. aculeatum
• 
  C. inclusum
• 
  C. inclusum
• 
  C. punctorium

As of October 2025^[update], theWorld Spider Catalog accepts 231 species, found in the Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe, Central America, Africa, Asia, North America, and onSaint Helena:^[1]

These are species with articles on Wikipedia:^[1]

• List of Cheiracanthiidae species
• List of spiders associated with cutaneous reactions

• Howell, Mike; Jenkins, Ronald L. (2004).Spiders of the US: A photographic guide.ISBN 0-536-75853-0.

• Cheiracanthium
• Cheiracanthiidae genera
• Cosmopolitan spiders
• Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Koch

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with 'species' microformats
• Articles to be expanded from October 2025
• All articles to be expanded
• Articles containing potentially dated statements from October 2025
• All articles containing potentially dated statements