Comments & ID Thoughts
Araneus diadematus, a Cross Orbweaver, female, dorsal image. I finally found one! She has her web between branches of a dogwood tree over my bryophytes garden of ferns, moss, other primitive plants in a wet part of my yard with a high water table. Lots of insects and spiders there.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Sep 16, 2019
- Photographed: Sep 16, 2019
- Spider: Araneus diadematus (Cross Orb-weaver)
- Location: Nashua, New Hampshire, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Low foliage (shrubs, herbs, garden, excluding flowers)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes: Dorsal
Did you take this at night?
Yes, I was busy scaring my next-door neighbor’s father yet again by weeding and pruning at night. I use the motion sensor lights they aimed at my house to do it. I’ve been taking night photos for years, I like the black background and the way plants look by camera flash. The flash seems to have more UV light than sunlight. Nocturnally pollinated flowering plants have UV light reflecting markings that act like glowing landing strips for the insects that search for them. I saw a museum exhibit when I was a kid that showed how some flowers look to… Read more »
You ever seen an exhibit with minerals under different wavelengths, and they turn different colors? It’s trippy.
Yes, the Boston Museum of Science had both the Glowing Minerals exhibit and the Bug UV Vision exhibit next-to each other in a dark room. They were the two of the most memorable science exhibits I saw as as a kid. There was a tourist open pit mine in New Hampshire (Ruggles Mine) that had an exhibit in a mining tunnel of UV light on the rocks and minerals in the mine. The radioactive ones glowed the most. You could bring home what you mined and my husband brought home some radioactive rocks and let them get mixed in with… Read more »
Is this maybe a Pumpkin Spider? Araneus Diadematus? A common garden Orb Weaver.
I’m pretty sure she was a Cross Orbweaver, Araneus diadematus.
That’s right. I was thinking of the Marbled Orbweaver.