Look at this beauty living under my nameplate. I strongly suspect Madame goes by the name of Araneus diadematus. A patriarchal naming system, because she should be an Aranea diademata!
They are great friends of organic gardeners because they mainly kill parasites, but also midges and even wasps. The females live for about 1 year. After laying eggs in a cocoon, they drop from exhaustion and die.

Wow, in direkter Nachbarschaft zu den Mauerbienen entwickelt sich gerade ein ganzes Nest von Gartenkreuzspinnen
#araneusdiadematus
Wie viele von denen wohl das Erwachsenenalter erreichen werden?

Today in itsy-bitsy, incy-wincy #spooder doings - I'm beginning to spot #AraneusDiadematus spiderlings around the garden. I found this one on the tip of a #clematis leaf.

By autumn the surviving females will be grand gravid beauties, their namesake mottled cross marking evident on their large orange abdomens. They'll be hanging out at the center of their magnificent orb webs or carefully tucked just out of sight, a single elegant claw hooked onto a signal line alerting them the moment something touches their web.

But right now, while they're all so incredibly small and translucent, I'd swear they're made of at least 50% sunlight.

A poc a poc vaig aprenent a fer fotografies a aranyes. En aquest cas una aranya de la creu que són unes habituals al centre d'interpretació del Racó de l'Olla.

Spider in the sky #araneusdiadematus #spider
#nature