Araniella cucurbitina (Clerck, 1757)
A very common spider of trees and bushes, Araniella cucurbitina is abundant during the Spring and Summer throughout the Sherwood Forest NNR. There are several other similarly coloured species in the UK, of which one (Araniella opisthographa) is found in Nottinghamshire and is visually identical to this species. While both species might be classed as common, cucurbitina seems to be the commoner of the two. When checking mature females, cucurbitina out-numbered opisthographa by 5/1.
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Sub-adult Araniella cucurbitina, photographed at Budby South Forest late April 2010
 
 
Nottinghamshire (VC56) distribution of Araniella cucurbitina
 
 
 
 
The records for the Nottinghamshire distribution map are currently provided by the following contributors - Richard Rogers. Trevor and Dilys Pendleton. Bob Merritt. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Tim Sexton. Sherwood Forest Invertebrate Directory 2014. Stuart Warrington. The National Trust (Clumber Park invertebrate records). Wil Heeney. Tony Kavanagh. Meg Skinner.

You can contribute your own records to help us gain an accurate status of this species in Nottinghamshire. Send an Excel spreadsheet of your records via the 'contact us' link at the top of the homepage.

Updated January 2024
copyright © Trevor and Dilys Pendleton (www.eakringbirds.com) . .
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