Australian Wildlife
St Andrews Cross Spiders.

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Photo 1 - Juvenile.

The photo above is of a young female St Andrews Cross spider.

Very young St Andrews Cross spiders build a small circular patch in the centre of their web rather than the normal cross.

Photo 2 - Male.

The St Andrews Cross male spider is very small; only growing to about one quarter the size of a female.

The male St Andrews is plain brown and does not have the colours on its abdomen like the female.

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Photo 3 - Female.

The photo above is of a a half grown female sitting on a circular web. It shows the bands of colours unique to this species.

There is another variety of St Andrews spiders that have longer bodies. They are hard to photograph because they rapidly shake their web when anything large gets too close.

Photo 4 - Adult female.

Adult spiders don't go much on getting their photo taken, especially at close range. They usually drop to the ground if you get too close.

I was amazed when this young spider let me get within 100mm. Close enough to see at least six of her eyes watching me.

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Photo 5 - Nest.

Photo shows a series of nests where the babies will hatch before dispersing to build their own webs.

This photo was taken inside our shade house. It is enclosed on three side with shade-cloth that can be seen in the background.

Photo 6 - Mating.

In this photo you can see the smaller male spider carefully approaching the larger female from behind.


All photos on this page were taken using a Panasonic Lumix FZ20 or FZ50 digital camera.

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