Araneus quadratus Araneus quadratus Araneus quadratus, the four-spot orb-weaver, is a common orb-weaver spider found in Europe and Central Asia, and as far as the Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan. Females can reach 17 mm in length, especially when gravid, males approximately half that. They are quite variable in appearance, ranging from brown to bright orange or green, but they always have the characteristic four white spots on the abdomen. The darker color morphs are easiest to identify, due to the contrast between the white spots and the rest of the body. The legs are sometimes brightly striped. The spider lives in gardens,
Chinese garden in what was going on in Europe. He commissioned the Jesuit priest Father Castiglione, who was trained in engineering, to build fountains for his garden similar to those he had heard about in the gardens at Versailles. Chinese architecture and aesthetics also influenced the English garden. In 1685, the English diplomat and writer Sir William Temple wrote an essay "Upon the garden of Epicurus" (published in 1692), which contrasted European theories of symmetrical gardens with asymmetrical compositions from China. Temple had never visited China, but he had read the works of European travelers there. He noted that Chinese gardens avoided