European garden spider freshly hatched

Description:

The garden spider is easily recognized by the bright, assembled into a cross patch. The spots are located on the upper side of the abdomen and are composed of four elongated and a small circular spot in the middle together. The basic color of the spider is highly variable. You can adapt its coloring to the brightness of its surroundings. It is among the largest indigenous spiders. The body length of the females can be up to 18 mm, the males of about 10 mm.

Habitat:

The garden spider is found throughout central Europe. In the open countryside, it is frequently and constantly found in orchards; in pine forests, bogs and beech-fir forests, forest edges and hedgerows it is somewhat rare, otherwise steady but rarely in meadows, fields and gardens. In the lowlands it is found in these habitats in the shrub strata and crown layer. Their distribution in the Holarctic decreases rapidly with increasing altitude.

Notes:

Pictures from a freshly hatched cocoon on a Bellis perennis plant.