E2BN Gallery

The most commonly seen spider in our gardens, hence it name. Garden spiders vary in colour from a light yellowy-brown to very dark brown, but they all have a characteristic white cross-shaped group of spots on their abdomen. It spins the familiar orb web and feeds on flies, wasps butterflies, tending to ignore smaller prey. After mating the females body become swollen with eggs that are laid in a silken web sac that she guards until she dies in late autumn. The eggs hatch the next spring in May. Picture taken 27th August 2011 in Bedford