Darker female, Araneus diadematus, large British spiders, common resident, gardens, houses, spider, white cross, abdomen, sandy brown, orb-web.
In high summer and autumn the beautiful orb webs of the Garden Spider, Araneus diadematus, can be found strung across paths, between shrubs and even in front of doors. During the night the industrious spider spins its silk and weaves it into a web ready for the following day. This is one of our largest British spiders and a very common resident of gardens. The distinctive white cross mark on the abdomen has given rise to the alternative names of 'Cross spider' and 'Diadem spider'. Colours vary and include sandy brown, fox-red and almost black. Adult female grow to 15mm (body length), and males to 9mm. They are commonly seen between June and November when the first frosts kill them off. Garden spiders are found in Europe and much of Asia across to Japan. They are now also found in parts of North America. The European garden spider with its poignant life cycle and familiar orb web is the most well known spider in the UK. Found in almost every country in the northern hemisphere, garden spiders feed on flying insects such as butterflies, wasps and flies but tend to ignore smaller prey such as greenflies. When a female has mated, her body becomes swollen with eggs. She builds a silken egg sac in which to lay the eggs and dedicates the rest of her life to protecting them. Unable to leave the eggs to hunt and feed, she dies in late autumn before her spiderlings hatch out in May of the following year. In natural populations, courting males of Araneusdiadematus are often consumed by females before they have successfully copulated. Despite the possible nutritional benefits of sexual cannibalism for females, the male can derive no benefit by being consumed before copulation. In this study, females that consumed a single male significantly increased their body mass, regardless of the quality of their diet. The implication is that, for A. diadematus, sexual cannibalism increases female fecundity. In experimentally controlled courtship sequences.
Size: 3456px × 5184px
Location: Lincolnshire 2012
Photo credit: © Steve Welsh / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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