Araneus alsine Araneus alsine The strawberry spider or orange wheelweaving spider (Araneus alsine) is a species of the orb-weaving spider (Araneidae) family. This species has a palearctic distribution (Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan). These spiders prefer moist environments. They mainly inhabit forests clearings, swampy bogs with birch and heather, wet meadows, high grass and shady places. "Araneus alsine" can reach a body length of in males, of in females. These spiders have a large, almost globular or slightly elliptical shaped opisthosoma, ranging from beige to reddish-orange, with many white-and-yellow spots spread over the surface and sometimes forming the sign of a
Botanical garden (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 1670); and in France ("Jardin des plantes de Montpellier", 1593; Faculty of Medicine Garden, Paris, 1597; "Jardin des Plantes", Paris, 1635), Denmark (University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden, 1600); Sweden (Uppsala University, 1655). During the 16th and 17th centuries, the first plants were being imported to these major Western European gardens from Eastern Europe and nearby Asia (which provided many bulbs), and these found a place in the new gardens, where they could be conveniently studied by the plant experts of the day. For example, Asian introductions were described by Carolus Clusius (1526–1609), who was director, in