This spider belongs to the family Araneidae but it builds a web that at first glance resembles that of the Linyphiidae - a sheet web. The web is in fact a distorted horizontal orb web. The web is pulled up at the centre to produce a dome shape. Females lay their eggs above the centre of the web and guard them.

Cyrtophora citricola from Southern Europe builds a similar web but is not closely related.

Above: the peanut like object is a collection of the spider's egg sacs.

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