A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Posted: **Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:54 pm**

Need an ID for a Spider Please:

Can anyone help with the ID of the spider (the same) spider in the photos below please ?? At first I thought it was going to be the Strawberry Spider (Araneus alsine) but having looked at the pictures I am now convinced it is not. Any help would be very much appreciated. Found in Woolton, Liverpool (SJ43308612), in the lid of a green-waste bin (with egg sac) today (20th October 2014).

Could it really be merely a colour form of the Garden-Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus) ?? The spotting seems wrong to me and I am not convinced.

Cheers and thanks.
Steve

Posted: **Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:47 pm**

Hi Steve,

This is not Araneus alsine .... wish it was!

It's got to be Araneus diadematus. There is considerable colour variation in this species and your specimen is a particularly striking orange/red colour. Abdominal patterning is also variable but I think your specimen shows enough of the basic pattern features to be sure of species. Your photos nicely show the faint tubercules on the 'shoulders' of the abdomen where it is widest.

She will stay with her egg sac until late Autumn when she will die.

Cheers,
John

Posted: **Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:28 pm**

Thank you very much John - much appreciated mate. Its identity is where I had finally decided the answer lay - (i.e. a specimen of Araneus diadematus).

Hope you are well.

Cheers and take care John, and thanks once again.

Steve

A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Need an ID for a Spider Please

Need an ID for a Spider Please

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Re: Need an ID for a Spider Please