Male European Garden Spider

Great tips, thanks everyone!!! White cross - I'll remember that. :)

the white cross gives it away.

Grass spiders build their webs on the ground in the grass as the name suggests. This looks to be one of the orb-weavers.

Is this a "grass spider" maybe?

Thank you everyone for all the info. I did not know that about the wolf spider! Just after I wrote that, I looked up the wolf spider and I realized this and edited this spotting but it stayed for some reason.

@Martini---yes, agreed. Many of the identifications of wolf spiders on Project Noah show webs but I remember from my zoology class that they don't build webs. I think the term wolf spider has become a common name that is used for many species now.

@Holly---with a wolf spider they have a defining characteristic which is the eyes. They have a pair of eyes that are much larger than the rest of their eyes.

A wolf spider will never build a web. They run on the ground actively hunting for prey (like a wolf). This is one of a huge number of orb spiders that build a round (orb-shaped) web, and wait for some food to fly by.

This does not look like a wolf spider to me. Plus its web does not seem like the web of a wolf spider as they are more known to catch their prey in a predatory head-on way.