Neoscona crucifera is an orb-weaver spider

Orb-weaver spider

The "typical" orb-weaver spiders are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forests...

 in the family Araneidae. It is found in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 in the east, to Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 in the Midwest, to Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 in the southwest, and in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. Its common names include Hentz’s orbweaver, and barn spider , though the latter nickname suggests the confusion that can result from using common names for spiders, as the name "barn spider" is also commonly used for the species Araneus cavaticus.

Generally nocturnal, females may become diurnal in the fall. Females are about 9.5 millimetre long, while males are somewhat smaller. The upper surface of the abdomen is brown and hairy. The legs display alternating light and dark brown bands. The undersurface of the abdomen is black, with two white spots.

The orb part of the web may be nearly 2 foot (0.6096 m) in diameter. The eggsac consists of fluffy yellow threads in a rolled leaf over a lenticular or spherical egg mass 5 millimetre in diameter, which may contain up to 1,000 eggs. Juveniles are frequently preyed upon by mud dauber

Mud dauber

Mud dauber is a name commonly applied to a number of wasps from either the family Sphecidae or Crabronidae that build their nests from mud...

s.

Synonyms

N. crucifera has also been known by a number of taxonomic synonyms

Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...

.

• Aranea crucifera albimaculata Strand, 1908
• Epeira crucifera Keyserling, 1864
• Epeira domiciliorum Emerton, 1884
• Epeira hentzii Keyserling 1864
• Epeira lentiginosa Blackwall 1862
• Neoscona arkansa Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942
• Neoscona benjamina Comstock 1940
• Neoscona hentzi Kaston 1977
• Neoscona nebraskensis Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942
• Neoscona sacra Chamberlin & Ivie, 1944