Steatoda lepida is a species of Theridiidae that is endemic to New Zealand.Hann, S. W. (1994). Descriptions of four Steatoda species (Araneae, Theridiidae) found in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 21: 225-238.
Taxonomy Steatoda lepida was first described in 1880 as Lithyphantes lepidus.Pickard-Cambridge, O. (1880). On some new and rare spiders from New Zealand, with characters of four new genera. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 47(4, for 1879): 681-703, Pl. LII-LIII. [published in April 1880, after Duncan, 1937] doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1879.tb02701.x In 1886, it was independently described again as Theridium triloris by Arthur Urquhart.Urquhart, A. T. (1886). On the spiders of New Zealand. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 18: 184-205. In 1935, Elizabeth Bryant recognized T. triloris as a synonym of L. lepidus. S. lepida was independently described again in 1956 as Lithyphantes regius. In 1983, L. regius was recognized as belonging to the Steatoda genus and was subsequently named Steatoda regius.Brignoli, P. M. (1983). A catalogue of the Araneae described between 1940 and 1981. Manchester University Press, 755 pp. In 1994, S. regius was recognized as a synonym of L. lepidus and the two were merged to form S. lepida.
Distribution This species is widespread throughout New Zealand, including on the Chatham Islands.
Conservation status Under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, this species is listed as "Not Threatened".
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