European garden spider

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = European garden spider | image = Araneus diadematus.jpg | image_width = 200px | image_caption = European garden spider in web | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Arthropoda | classis = Arachnida | ordo = Araneae | subordo = Araneomorphae | familia = Araneidae | genus = Araneus | species = A. diadematus | binomial = Araneus diadematus | binomial_authority = Clerck, 1757 }}

The European garden spider (Araneus diadematus, cross spider) is a very common and well-known orb-weaver spider in Western Europe. Araneus diadematus also lives in parts of North America, in a range extending from New England and the Southeast to the Northwestern United States and adjacent parts of Canada.

Individual spiders' colouring can range from extremely light yellow to very dark gray, but all european garden spiders have mottled markings across the back with five or more large white dots forming a cross.

It is hard to provoke a garden spider to bite - if it does, the bite is slightly unpleasant and utterly harmless.

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