Garden Spider

The Garden Spider has a white ‘+’ cross-shaped mark on their abdomen and are sometimes called Cross spiders because of this.

The colour of the abdomen is extremely variable. It can be anything from almost black, to dark grey, through brown, orange, yellow and white. It is usual for at least five of the dots on the abdomen, to make up the cross marking.

The Garden Spider is particularly noticeable in autumn, when numbers peak and they can be seen in the centre of their large orb webs, but they can be seen from June to October.

The female is at her largest in late autumn when she is at her oldest and often full of eggs. After laying her eggs, the female dies and only the eggs and the spiders that hatched in the spring of the year will overwinter. The young spiderlings appear in spring and early summer. They are often seen huddled together in their web. Spiderlings are bright yellow with a dark brown triangular patch on the abdomen.

Garden Spiders are found in gardens, woodland and meadows and are extremely common and widespread in Britain.