Cyrtophora Cytricola

This is quite a special spider. These spiders belong to the family Araneidae yet they dont build orb webs. Instead these spiders build a dome web which looks like a cross between a horizontal Araneid orb web and a Linyphiid sheet web. The web forms a cone supported by many intricate support lines and the spider sits at the top of the cone with her egg sacs.

These spiders build their webs in gardens and road side bushes in the south of Europe and Africa. The are mostly white and black in varying amounts but sometimes they are brown.