A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Araneus diadematus
Individual spiders' colouring can range from extremely light yellow to very dark grey, but all European garden spiders have mottled markings across the back with five or more large white dots forming a cross. The white dots result from cells that are filled with guanine, which is a byproduct of protein metabolism.
Adult females range in length from 6.5 to 20 mm while males range from 5.5 to 13 mm. The third pair of legs of garden spiders are specialized for assisting in the spinning of orb webs. These spiders also use them to move around on their web without getting stuck. These legs are useful only in the web; while on the ground, these legs are of little value.
A very common and well-known orb-weaver spider in Europe and parts of North America, in a range extending from New England and the Southeast to California and the northwestern United States and adjacent parts of southern Canada.
Since this tends to be a passive animal, it is difficult to provoke to bite—but if it does, the bite is just slightly unpleasant and completely harmless to humans.
© Emma Simpson. All Rights Reserved.
Please consider adding this to the new Spiders of the British Isles mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/2977...
Your welcome. I'm really glad to see you respond and add the correct ID so fast.
Thank you! It must be a European Garden Spider because you're not the only one to suggest it. :)
Spotted on Aug 11, 2011
Submitted on Oct 19, 2011
+3
