Araniella cucurbitina

Araniella cucurbitina, sometimes called the "cucumber green spider", is a spider of the family Araneidae. Araniella cucurbitina is found across Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia and Japan. The cucurbitina in the name comes from the word cucurbit which is a family of plants including cucumbers.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by the Swedish entomologist and arachnologist Carl Alexander Clerck (1709-1765) in 1757 as Araneus cucurbitinus and was revised in 1942 by Chamberlin & Ivie with the name Araniella cucurbitina. ==Distribution==

Distribution

This species occurs in the Palaearctic. It is widespread in north-western and central Europe, in Turkey, and in Central Asia to China and Korea. It can also be found in parts of North America, where it was probably introduced. ==Habitat==

Habitat

These spiders are mainly found on forest clearings, in woods, bushes, scrub and hedgerows and in low vegetation. ==Description==

Description

Females of Araniella cucurbitina are larger than males. Moreover the male is generally much slimmer, with more developed limbs (Sexual dimorphism). In fact females grow up to , while males only up to . Adult spiders in Spring show a basic green color. The cephalothorax (prosoma) is light yellowish to red-brown, ==Biology==

Biology

Adults can be found mainly from May to July, but females last as late as September. ==Gallery==

Gallery

File:Araniella.cucurbitina.spiderling.jpg|Spiderling File:Araniella.cucurbitina.web.jpg|Web File:Araneidae - Araniella cucurbitina-2 (8304383258).jpg|With prey File:Araniella cucurbitina Foci dell'Avisio 02.jpg|On a leaf ==References==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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