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Terry Thormin | all galleries >> Galleries >> My Favorites 2005 & 2006 > Araneus diadematus - Cross Spider 3.jpg
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12-SEP-2006

Araneus diadematus - Cross Spider 3.jpg

This species is an Old World spider that has been introduces on both the east and west coast. While common in coastal B.C., there is only one record for Alberta, and that was probably one brought in from the coast on produce. It is a species to be looked for in Alberta though, as it might eventually cross the Rockies, either with mans help or on its own, and become established in the province.

Canon PowerShot S3 IS
1/100s f/5.6 at 72.0mm hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time12-Sep-2006 11:34:19
MakeCanon
ModelCanon PowerShot S3 IS
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length72 mm
Exposure Time1/100 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias-0.67
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

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Liz 22-Aug-2011 19:15
Have a few in my yard. Big and smaller they've been many different colors like the one pictured as well as a yellow almost clear color and striped with black and brown. I live in sw Alberta I see them quite often in the months of august and September
KMcHughen 31-Oct-2010 21:37
Hey Terry! This is Katherine McHughen, one of the phobics you rehabilitated in your office at the museum. I'm still ever so grateful! That therapy was possibly the best thing I've ever done for myself. I can't overstate how much being phobia-free has changed my life! Especially given that I'm a real ecology & biology buff! Now I can explore nature for real, not just with books! THANK YOU.
On to the reason I'm on this site today. I was trying to figure out the identity of a spider I saw a couple hours NW of Fort Mac. I saw one on 3 occasions, always sitting on the concrete (at CNRL Horizon refinery) so I'm not sure if they're hunters or web-makers (sorry) but they were HUGE and splendid! One was shades of greyish brown with white, the other two were shades of black/grey with white, and they seemed to be identical otherwise. They were "tabbycat" in pattern and really bristley, very much like this Araneus diadematis you show. The body was looney-sized and the entire critter was maybe 2or 2 1/2 inches. I'll tell you how they differed from the A.diadematis: I remember the bumps being more separated and pronounced (though still rounded, not spikey), and symmetrical; conelike...exactly like Barbie Doll boobs, ha! Then there was a single very defined depression between and to the rear of them, not just a group of little dents like the photo shows. The abdomen wasn't small like on a wolf, nor huge like on an orbie, and definitely pentagonalish...most similar to a crab spider's, with flat sides, like a doghouse shape with the "roof peak" joining the thorax. Except whereas a crab gets wider to the rear, this type gets narrower to the rear. The most distinctive thing was her resting stance: on each side the front 2 legs were held very much to the front, and the rear 2 very much to the rear, with the rear ones kinda spread but the front ones tight together and OVERLAPPED at the ends, like when you cross your fingers! Maybe my memory is playing tricks and it was the A.diadematus... but I wonder if these come in grey and if they would be sitting about on the ground as described.
I guess it doesn't really matter what it was. The main thing is that I and my coworkers got the chance to marvel at a few of them, and I scooted them out of harm's way (instead of crying at work, and having to beg someone to kill it for me, as I would have done if you & I had never had our sessions! Yay!) but let me know if the description rings any bells. I'll keep my fingers crossed!