Geographic Range
The range of the
Araneus diadematus
extends from New England and adjacent Canada across the northern states to Washington,
Oregon, and British Columbia.
Habitat
Araneus diadematus
lives in grasslands and requires some form of moisture. The environment must provide
plenty of attachment sites for the scaffolding of the web and there must be sufficient
vertical open space for the orb web.
- Habitat Regions
- temperate
- terrestrial
- Terrestrial Biomes
- savanna or grassland
Physical Description
Female
Araneus diadematus
have lengths of 6.5 to 20 mm, whereas males are 5.5 to 13 mm. Color ranges from pale
yellow brown to nearly black. The folium is not as distinct as some other
Araneus
species and includes a number of white or yellow spots. The largest spots are arranged
longitudinally near the anterior end. Usually there is a pair of white spots at right
angles to the longitudinal ones, which gives the group the form of a cross. The cross
arrangement is more apparent in darker individuals and is caused by guanine cells
which shine through the transparent cuticle. The carapace has a median and marginal
dark bands. There are four pairs of legs which fan out radially from the connecting
carapace and sternum. Each leg has seven segments: a coxa and a trochanter, which
are both short; a long femur and a kneelike patella; a slender tibia and metatarsus;
and finally a tarsus with three claws. The first pair of legs are relatively long
and used as feelers for probing the environment. Sensory hairs densely cover the distal
leg segments. The external sex organs of males and females are observed ventrally.
Both male and female genital openings lie inside the epigastric furrow, except that
the epigynum is situated in front of the female furrow. Males also have a bulb or
palp used for the storage of sperm.
- Other Physical Features
- ectothermic
- heterothermic
- bilateral symmetry
- Sexual Dimorphism
- sexes shaped differently
Reproduction
The internal reproductive organs of
Araneus diadematus
resemble those of other arthropods. Females have paired ovaries that lie in the abdomen
and join to form a common oviduct which ends in the uterus and opens to the outside
in the epigastric furrow. Females also have a pair of spermathacae or seminal receptacles
where sperm taken in during copulation is stored until egg-laying. In males, a common
duct is formed by a pair of coiled testes in the abdomen and opens to the exterior
at the centre of the epigastric furrow. Males exude sperm through the epigastric furrow
onto a sperm web and transfer it to their palps. The terminal palp is the sperm reservoir
and carries out insemination through a narrow tube known as the embolus. The palp
serves as a pipette which can suck up and release seminal fluid. Blood pressure within
male palps increases so that sclerotized projections such as hooks and spines elevate
into position to grasp on to the surface of the epigyne. Only the correct palp will
fit into the appropriate epigyne. This ensures successful mating only between individuals
of the same species. Males search for a female and are rather cautious when approaching
a female, because they risk being considered prey. Males embrace the female's abdomen
during copulation and insert one palp. Afterwards, the male leaves and his palps are
refilled with sperm. This process may only be repeated a few times since the life
expectancy of males is shorter than females.
- Mating System
- polygynous
Females breed once, dieing shortly after laying their eggs. Individuals of this species
breed at the end of the warm season, with young hatching in the following spring.
- Key Reproductive Features
- semelparous
- seasonal breeding
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
- fertilization
- oviparous
Before the female starts making her egg sac, she withdraws for several days. She then
spins a thin layer of single, tightly-woven silk threads. The first layer is molded
by her abdominal movements into a disk, known as a basal plate. Then she crawls underneath
the basal plate and continuously turns around in circles spinning the cylindrical
wall. The palps are held in contact with one side of this wall while spinnerets are
placed on the opposite wall. After about two hours, the cylindrical wall grows to
5 mm in height. Cocoon size is directly related to the size of the spider, but not
necessarily to the number of eggs it will hold. Females wait for a few minutes and
begins to lay eggs and cover them in a tight pack of silk threads. This becomes the
cover plate and the spider continues to add layers of thread to it. The loop mesh
ultimately wraps around the entire surface of the egg sac. Females remain close to
the cocoon for the next few days in case the threads need repairing. Females die a
few days after the egg sac is built. The cocoon will appear unchanged externally while
the spiderlings develop for a few months. The offspring emerge in spring and release
fine threads of silk from their spinnerets to be carried off by the wind to new locations.
Their journey through the air is called ballooning. Wherever each spider drops from
the sky will be where its new life begins.
- Parental Investment
- no parental involvement
- precocial
-
pre-fertilization
- provisioning
-
protecting
- female
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
protecting
- female
-
protecting
Behavior
This species rebuilds its web everyday to enhance the possibility of capturing prey.
The protein composition of spider silk is unusual. Amino acids with short side-chains
make up 50 to 60% of the total protein. Before building a new web, a spider eats its
old web, conserving silk proteins (Foelix 1982). The web of
Araneus diadematus
usually has 25 to 30 radial threads forming regular angles of 12 to 15 degrees. Webs
of young individuals often have many more radii than those of adults.
Communication and Perception
Araneus diadematus individuals integrate information from the central nervous system and visual system. A spider will orient its body axis perpendicular to the path of a moving object in order to view the object with the main eyes. Input from the secondary eyes causes the spider to turn without any visual feedback. However, when a moving object is viewed only by the secondary eyes, a spider will not always turn towards it.
Food Habits
The ultimate purpose of spider webs is to capture prey and orb webs are well-suited
for this. They are highly geometrical, with the hub slightly higher than the center
so that the spider may run down the web quickly. The area nearer the hub is coated
more densely with sticky globules.
Araneus diadematus
individuals spend most of their time on the web's hub monitoring vibrations in the
silk with their sensitive legs. Females rest on one side of the web and monitors by
holding onto a signal thread. When catching prey,
Araneus diadematus
individuals wrap prey in silk thread before consuming it. After killing and wrapping
their prey, these spiders may not immediately consume the prey. The number of prey
attacked and killed may decrease as the number of prey increases and the spiders become
satiated. Spiders eat primarily arthropod prey.
- Primary Diet
- carnivore
- Animal Foods
- insects
- terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Araneus diadematus
individuals feed on insects, helping to reduce the population of insect pests. People
can use clean spider's web on a cut or wound to stop bleeding.
- Positive Impacts
- controls pest population
Conservation Status
There is no special conservation status for this species.
Other Comments
Araneus diadematus
is a large species and the best known of all orb weavers.
Additional Links
Contributors
Veronica Godines (author), Southwestern University, Stephanie Fabritius (editor), Southwestern University.
- Nearctic
-
living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- temperate
-
that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).
- terrestrial
-
Living on the ground.
- tropical savanna and grassland
-
A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.
- savanna
-
A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.
- temperate grassland
-
A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.
- ectothermic
-
animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature
- heterothermic
-
having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- polygynous
-
having more than one female as a mate at one time
- semelparous
-
offspring are all produced in a single group (litter, clutch, etc.), after which the parent usually dies. Semelparous organisms often only live through a single season/year (or other periodic change in conditions) but may live for many seasons. In both cases reproduction occurs as a single investment of energy in offspring, with no future chance for investment in reproduction.
- seasonal breeding
-
breeding is confined to a particular season
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- fertilization
-
union of egg and spermatozoan
- internal fertilization
-
fertilization takes place within the female's body
- oviparous
-
reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.
- young precocial
-
young are relatively well-developed when born
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- sedentary
-
remains in the same area
- solitary
-
lives alone
- visual
-
uses sight to communicate
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- carnivore
-
an animal that mainly eats meat
- insectivore
-
An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.
References
Comstock, J. 1980. The Spider Book . United Kingdom: Cornell University Press Ltd.
Dewey, J. 1993. Spiders Near and Far . New York: Dutton Children's Books.
Foelix, R. 1982. Biology of Spiders . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Kaston, B. 1972. How To Know the Spiders . Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers.
Parsons, A. 1990. Amazing Spiders . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc..
Preston-Mafham, K., R. Preston-Mafham. 1996. The Natural History of Spiders . Ramsbury, Malborough: The Crowood Press Ltd.
Wise, D. 1993. Spiders in Ecological Webs . New York: Cambridge University Press.