Subject: Beautiful spider buddy
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
August 31, 2016 12:53 pm
This spider has taken up residence outside of my back door. It is bigger than the picture gives credit. My sons are fascinated by watching it and I would love to be able to give them some scientific information about our new friend! I just wanted to know what species it is and whether male or female? Thanks!
Signature: Jamie
Dear Jamie,
This is one of the harmless Orbweavers in the family Araneidae, and we are pretty confident this is a Cross Orbweaver or European Garden Spider, Araneus diadematus, and according to BugGuide, it was: “Introduced to North America from Western and Northern Europe.” We are also relatively confident this is a female. With the Orbweavers, females are larger than males. We believe your children will love learning about Anita and Arabella, the first spiders in space, and you can read about them on About.Com.
