View from his belly.

Platte wielwebspin
Deze platte spin komt voornamelijk voor onder schors van dode bomen waar het zich gedurende de dag verstopt.
Het mannetje is ongeveer 9 mm lang en het vrouwtje 14 mm.

Nuctenea umbratica closely related to the common garden cross spider, which has a flattened body to allow it to get underneath bark. Most invertebrates have a dispersal stage. Beetle larvae that live in rotten wood may have nectar-feeding or predatory adults, which fly or walk up to possibly a few hundred metres. As concentrations of ancient trees are few, a beetle leaving its park is unlikely to find another ancient tree. If dead wood is removed, there will be nowhere to go and the whole population will disappear. It is for this reason that only sites with a long history of ancient trees and dead wood have important invertebrate populations. Isolated ancient trees normally have those invertebrates which are good colonisers and so are more common.
Female grows to around 14mms, male up to 9mms.
Food: Moths and other night-flying insects. It is most active at night, and catches its prey in a web. During the early evening these spiders can be seen constructing new orb-webs.
The colouring and patterning of these spiders does not vary much and their shiny abdomen is usually flattened.