St Andrew's cross spider
The St Andrew's cross spider has a stripy body in silver, yellow, red and black. It decorates the middle of its round web with bright white zigzag ribbons that form a big X. It often sits right in the middle of the X with its legs held together in pairs.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is St Andrew's cross spider compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The female is many times bigger than the male. Often several tiny males wait on one female's web.
Young spiders sometimes decorate their web with a spiral pattern instead of a cross.
It builds a new web every day or every few days. It eats the silk of the old web to recycle it.
When there is plenty of food it adds more white ribbons to its web, and when food is scarce it adds fewer.
Its main enemies are praying mantises and birds.
Most asked questions about St Andrew's cross spider
?Why does the St Andrew's cross spider make an X?
Scientists think the white zigzag ribbons help it catch more insects and also protect it from enemies.
?How big is a St Andrew's cross spider?
A female is about 1 to 1.5 centimetres long. A male is only 3 to 4 millimetres.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Argiope keyserlingi
- Named by
- Karsch, 1878
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Argiope keyserlingi (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 James Niland. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
European garden spider
Goliath birdeater
Brown recluse
Redback spider
Yellow garden spider
Bold jumping spider
Botany Bay weevil
Gooseberry sawfly
Brunner's stick mantis
Sun fly
Pear slug sawfly
Common flower bug