Araneus Araneus Araneus is a genus of common orb-weaving spiders. It includes about 650 species, among which are the European garden spider and the barn spider. Spiders of this genus present perhaps the most obvious case of sexual dimorphism among all of the orb-weaver family, with males being normally to the size of females. In "A. diadematus", for example, last molt females can reach the body size of up to 1 in (2.5 cm), while most males seldom grow over 0.3 in (1 cm), both excluding legspan. Males are differentiated from females by a much smaller and more elongated abdomen, longer
Araneus Theridiosomatidae ("Theridiosoma gemmosum", described by L. Koch, 1877 as "Theridion gemmosum"), Titanoecidae ("Nurscia albomaculata", described by Lucas, 1846 as "Epeira albo-maculata") and Uloboridae ("Uloborus glomosus", described by Walckenaer, 1842 as "Epeira glomosus"). "Epeira cylindrica" was at a time placed in Linyphiidae and is considered "incertae sedis", as is ""Araneus" cylindriformis" . "Epeira" was synonymized with the genus "Aranea" by Leach, 1815, and with "Araneus" by Simon, 1904. Throughout the 19th century, "Epeira" was used as a catch-all genus, similar to the once ubiquitous salticid genus "Attus". However, from 1911, to its last mention in 1957, only very few authors continued