Australian Spiders -- St Andrews Cross Spider

This page contains details and photos of St Andrews Cross spiders that live in our backyard at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.

Click on thumbnail image to see a larger, higher resolution photo.

Photo 1 - Juvenile

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

Young St Andrews Cross spiders build a small circular patch in the centre of their web rather than the usual cross.

Photo 3 - Adult Female

The photo above is of an adult 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 5 - Nests

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

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

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.

Photo 4 - Young Female

These 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.

Photo 6 - Mating

In this photo you can see the smaller male spider actually mating with the larger female from behind.