Cross spiders

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Cross spiders
Garden spider (Araneus diadematus)

Garden spider ( Araneus diadematus )

Systematics
Class : Arachnids (arachnida)
Order : Spiders (Araneae)
Subordination : Real spiders (Araneomorphae)
Superfamily : Orb web spiders (Araneoidea)
Family : Real orb web spiders (Araneidae)
Genre : Cross spiders
Scientific name
Araneus
Clerck , 1757

The garden spiders ( Araneus ) are with several hundred species one of the most species-rich genera of the family of the real orb web spiders . They are common worldwide. The genus is represented in Central Europe with over ten proven species. The well-known garden spider belongs to it .

features

Cross spiders get their name from the characteristic cross on the front abdomen, which consists of five spots in the garden cross spider (four elongated and one circular in the middle) and four spots in the four-spot cross spider . The spots are metabolic products that are deposited under the chitin shell. However, these spots are not arranged in a cross shape in all species of the genus Araneus ; most species have a different pattern.

A garden spider building a net
Orb web of a garden spider
Young garden spider on the web
Garden spider belly view
Garden spider with prey wrapped up on its web on a house wall.

Types and synonyms

The Palaearctic common aculepeira ceropegia Aculepeira ceropegia (Walckenaer, 1802) and the pumpkin spider Araniella cucurbitina are often used in older literature as Araneus ceropegia or Araneus cucurbitina out. Today, like many other species, they are no longer included in the genus of cross spiders.

Danger to humans

Garden spiders are one of the few spider species in Central Europe that can sometimes penetrate human skin with their bite, such as the water spider or the nurse's thorn-finger spider . However, cross spiders can only penetrate the skin in its thinnest parts. The bite is just unpleasant and medically without long-term consequences, but it can cause clearly noticeable symptoms, similar to a wasp or bee sting.

Web links

Commons : Araneus  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Araneus in the World Spider Catalog

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Natural History Museum of the Burgergemeinde Bern: World Spider Catalog Version 15.5 - Araneus . Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  2. ↑ Blick, T., R. Bosmans, J. Buchar, P. Gajdoš, A. Hänggi, P. Van Helsdingen, V. Ružicka, W. Starega & K. Thaler, 2004. Checklist of the spiders of Central Europe. Checklist of the spiders of Central Europe. (Arachnida: Araneae). Version December 1, 2004. ( Memento of the original from August 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / arages.de
  3. ↑ Foelix, Rainer F. 1979. Biology of the spiders. Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart. ISBN 3-1357-5801-X
  4. ↑ (see Hencke, AHZ 55 (1858) 166).