Multi-coloured Saint Andrew's cross spider
This is a colourful orb-web spider from Southeast Asia. The female has a silvery front body, a five-sided belly with white, yellow, red and dark stripes, and orange legs with dark bands. She sits head down in the middle of her web with her legs spread out in a big X.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It holds its legs in an X shape, like the cross of Saint Andrew, which is where its name comes from.
Females sometimes decorate their web with a zig-zag of white silk.
In young spiders the white decoration is shaped like a round disc. Grown-up females make it in the shape of a cross.
The male is smaller and duller, just brown and cream, and he does not decorate his web.
Most asked questions about Multi-coloured Saint Andrew's cross spider
?Why does it decorate its web?
Scientists think the white zig-zag silk may help it stay safe from animals that would eat it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Argiope versicolor
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Argiope versicolor (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Basile Morin. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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