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Australian Wildlife

  Enamelled Spider (Araneus bradleyi)





Enamelled Spider | Araneus bradleyi photo
Enamelled Spider female, Chatswood, NSW, Australia

Image by Peter Woodard - License: Public Domain.    (view image details)







ENAMELLED SPIDER FACTS

Description
The Enamelled Spider has an enamelled appearance which varies in colour in different parts of the country. Some spiders are a pure green colour. It is active in its web at night where it waits for small flying insects to get caught in the orb web placed about a metre above ground level. The spider retreats to surrounding vegetation during the day.

Size
Body length: males 8 - 9mm, females 14 - 18mm.

Food
small flying insects caught in their web

Breeding
The egg sac is woolly, made of reddish brown silk. It is rounded with flat bottom where it is fastened down. Eggs are 1 mm in diameter in a sticky mass.

Range
Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria



Classification
Class:Arachnida
Order:Araneomorphae
Family:Araneidae
Genus:Araneus
Species:bradleyi
Common Name:Enamelled Spider