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Sticker of European garden spider
Bug card No. 0479 of 1,500

European garden spider

Araneus diadematus
Name means: “the spider with a crown”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The European garden spider builds the classic round spider web you see in gardens and on fences. You can tell it by the white cross on its back. It sits in the middle of its web, head down, and waits for a fly to land.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Europe and North America, in gardens, hedges and forests
Length
0.6 to 2 cm (0.24 to 0.79 in)
females are much bigger than males
Top speed
about 1.7 km/h (1.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless

Watch out! Read all about it on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It eats flies, wasps, mosquitoes and other insects that fly into its web. It wraps them in silk first, like a little parcel.
For real!Photo of European garden spider
Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

European garden spider about 2 cm long (0.79 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.1 secondsmoves 24 times its own body length every second

How big is European garden spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It often eats its old web in the evening and builds a brand new one, which takes about an hour.

2

Only some threads of the web are sticky. The spider knows which ones and walks on the others.

3

When something big scares it, it shakes its web so fast that it turns into a blur.

4

Baby spiders hatch in spring and stay together in a yellow ball. If you touch it, they all run in different directions.

5

The white cross on its back is made of tiny spots.

you asked

Most asked questions about European garden spider

?What does a garden spider eat?

Flying insects that get stuck in its web, such as flies and wasps.

?How long does it take to build a web?

About one hour. Many garden spiders build a new web every day.

Myth buster

Myth: Spiders are insects.

Truth: They are not. Insects have six legs and spiders have eight. Spiders are arachnids, like scorpions.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Araneus diadematus
Named by
Clerck, 1757
Group
Spiders
Family
Araneidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
Lives on
Europe, North America
Also known as
Cross spider, Diadem spider, Cross orb-weaver

Where the facts come from

  1. Araneus diadematus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Spiders

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