European garden spider
Amazing fact
The European garden spider uses its long front legs like feelers to explore its surroundings.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The European garden spider uses its long front legs like feelers to explore its surroundings.
THE REAL WORLD
The real European garden spider
- Scientific name
- Araneus diadematus
- Japanese name
- ニワオニグモ
- Group
- Tiny animals
- Class
- Arachnida
- Order
- Araneae
- Family
- Araneidae
- Genus
- Araneus
A spider of grasslands with some moisture, where it spins a round orb web.
Its color ranges from pale yellowish brown to almost black, and white spots on its abdomen form a cross.
It rebuilds its web every day, and eats the old web before making a new one.
How the European garden spider lives
It spends much of its time at the web’s hub, sensing vibrations in the silk with its legs. When it catches prey, it wraps it in silk before eating it. It may leave prey uneaten for a while after killing it and wrapping it in silk.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 6.5–20 mm
Where the European garden spider has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ニワオニグモ
- 简体中文
- 十字园蛛
- 繁體中文
- 十字園蛛
- 한국어
- 유럽정원거미
- Español
- Araña de jardín europea
- Français
- Araignée porte-croix
- Deutsch
- Gartenkreuzspinne
- Português (Brasil)
- Tecedeira-de-cruz-cosmopolita
- Italiano
- Ragno crociato
- العربية
- عنكبوت الحديقة الأوروبي
- Русский
- Крестовик обыкновенный
- Türkçe
- Haçlı Bahçe Örümceği
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Araneus diadematusChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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