Species of the Month - September 2016

Garden Spider

Araneus diadematus
 

The Garden Spider is one of our most conspicuous species, especially in September, with fat females sitting in the centre of large webs up to 40 cm across.  Despite its abundance, the Spider Recording Scheme map shows Argyll almost empty of this species, so lets try and put that right.  There's no excuse as they rate it as one of the easiest spiders to identify!

The spider can be any colour from yellow to black, but is usually some shade of brown, as in this photo by Teenie Wilson which shows the typical abdomen pattern, with two vertical and two horizontal lines forming a cross with a dot in the middle.  Variations on this pattern are common however.
 

In the one above the side lines of the cross are reduced.  The right-hand pic shows the underside of a Garden Spider, which has two white dots halfway down a dark central stripe.

This one photographed by Sallie Jack on a house wall is even more untypical, with the 2 side-arms of the cross replaced by 4 spots forming an X around the central dot.
 

Garden Spider from our recent field trip to Luing, with abnormal markings and blackish ground colour
 

This one, with normal markings, has taken two prey items to its retreat area at the end of a signal-line from the web.  Unlike its relative the 4-spotted Orb-weaver, which we featured in September 2014, the Garden Spider does not build a large tent-like retreat out of silk but relies on being unnoticed among the moss, bark or leaves at the end of its signal-line.

The Garden Spider generally makes its web higher off the ground than the 4-spotted Orb-weaver, often at around human head height.  While the 4-spotted Orb-weaver often has its web between grass or rush stems in open country, the Garden Spider web is typically found in more bushy or wooded habitats, including gardens.  There is much overlap in habitat between the two species though.  Gorse bushes are a good place to look for Garden Spider webs.
 

This is a male, with its abdomen hardly longer than the head and thorax.  All the other photos on this page are females. 

Nick's Spiders has many more good photos of the Garden Spider, including aberrant forms. 

Please send in your Garden Spider sightings using the form below, or email sightings@lnhg.org.uk with the details if you prefer.  If you are not sure of the identity of your spider, please send a photo to sightings@lnhg.org.uk, or put one on the LNHG Facebook page.