Giant cross spider
| Giant cross spider | ||||||||||||
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Giant spider (female) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Araneus grossus | ||||||||||||
| ( CL Koch , 1844) |
The giant garden spider ( Araneus grossus ) is a species of spider from the family of the real orb web spiders (Araneidae). The species is one of the largest orb web spiders in Europe. The distribution area extends from South and Southeast Europe to Central Asia.
description
Giant cross spiders are significantly larger and stronger than the garden cross spider native to Central Europe . Females have a body length of 15 to 23 mm; the male reaches about 11 mm.
In both sexes, the front body ( prosoma ) is brown with a lighter edge. The yellowish eye area is densely lightly haired. The sternum is yellowish brown and has dark edges. The legs are curled brown and indistinctly dark. The abdomen ( opisthosoma ) is clearly arched up on the two front corners. It shows dorsally on a light brown background behind a dark brown leaf drawing, on the front edge in the middle a large, dark brown, almost circular spot, which is delimited whitish and enclosed in a darker brown. This creates a striking ring pattern.
distribution and habitat
The distribution of the giant garden spider is limited to the Palearctic and ranges from southern and southeastern Europe to central Asia. So far it has only been detected once in Portugal. The species reaches its northern limit of distribution in south-eastern Central Europe. In Switzerland it is absent, from Germany there is only one evidence from the Kaiserstuhl , which may, however, be attributed to wind drift. In Austria there are two deposits in the federal state of Carinthia in the eastern Gailtal Alps and in the Karawanken . From Hungary, too, the species is only known from a few places in the Carpathian arch.
The habitat of this spider are heat-exposed herbaceous and perennial corridors, in Carinthia the species inhabits xerothermic (dry warm) rock steppes at 680 to 790 m altitude.
literature
- C. Komposch: Remarkable spiders from Southeast Austria I (Arachnida: Araneae). Scientific Association for Carinthia, Austria. Carinthia 190/110, 2000: pp. 343-380
Web links
Araneus grossus in the World Spider Catalog
- Araneus grossus in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved June 11, 2011
- W. Nentwig , Theo Blick, Daniel Gloor, Ambros Hänggi & Christian Kropf (eds.): Araneae spiders of Europe - Araneus grossus. Online, accessed June 10, 2011
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d W. Nentwig , Theo Blick, Daniel Gloor, Ambros Hänggi & Christian Kropf (eds.): Araneae Spinnen Europa - Araneus grossus. Online, accessed on June 10, 2011 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cardoso, P. (2011): Portugal spider catalog (v3.0). Online, accessed June 10, 2011
- ↑ a b c C. Komposch: Remarkable Spiders from Southeast Austria I (Arachnida: Araneae). Scientific Association for Carinthia , Austria. Carinthia 190/110, 2000, pp. 343-380.
- ↑ Budai Sas-Hegy - Természetvédelmi Terület - Araneus grossus. (Hungarian page on Araneus grossus in the Sas-Hegy nature reserve) Online, accessed on June 10, 2011
