Garden Orbweaving Spider

Eriophora biapicata

A common and highly variable spider found in all states of Australia but mostly in the south. There is also E transmarina which is also highly variable, suspected to inhabit more northerly areas but ranges overlap considerably. Work yet to be done might yet find they are the same.
Garden Orbweaving spider (Eriophora biapicata) I walked into a web at night and found it belonged to this quite attractive woolly coated orb spider about 30mm long. After accidentally destroying the main web I realised the spider seemed to have gathered a large part of the web - maybe the stabilimentum to be resorbed ? Suburban back yard on canna lily. Highly variable. Australia,Eriophora biapicata,Garden Orbweaving Spider,Geotagged,Summer

Appearance

30mm long they are often plain, furry or patterned and smooth. Abdomen colours range from white, cream, yellow, tan with reddish brown legs.

Distribution

All states of Australia including Tasmania. More common in southern areas.

Status

Least concern.

Behavior

Forms large, flat orb web each night and resorbs it in the morning.

Habitat

Any areas with plant growth above 50cm tall.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Eriophora+biapicata#
http://eol.org/pages/1195155/overview
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassArachnida
OrderAraneae
FamilyAraneidae
GenusEriophora
SpeciesEriophora biapicata
Photographed in
Australia