Family Araneidae Clerck, 1757

		In case you find an error or have a specific suggestion, please follow this link: click
1	Opisthosoma with distinct tubercles on anterior or posterior margin   2
-	Opisthosoma without tubercles; anterior margin sometimes angular at most   4
2 (1)	Opisthosoma with two tubercles on anterior margin   3	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Opisthosoma posteriorly with one or three tubercles Cyclosa	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
3 (2)	Diameter of anterior median eyes > diameter of posterior median eyes Araneus
-	Diameter of anterior median eyes approximately equals the diameter of posterior median eyes Gibbaranea
4 (1)	Opisthosoma twice as long as wide, with distinct longitudinal stripes Larinia	Opisthosoma, dorsal view (Kupryjanowicz 1995a)
-	Different   5
5 (4)	Prosoma shining silver; opisthosoma in adult females with white (yellow)-black transversal stripes or opisthosoma laterally lobed Argiope	Opisthosoma (Heimer & Nentwig 1991) Habitus (Heimer & Nentwig 1991)
-	Prosoma not shining silver   6
6 (5)	Opisthosoma smooth and shining, mostly without hairs   7
-	Opisthosoma not shining, often densely covered with hairs   8
7 (6)	Opisthosoma dorsally with 3 longitudinal stripes and one to several transversal stripes, ventrally with 2 white longitudinal dots Singa	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Opisthosoma dorsally only with longitudinal stripes or unicoloured, ventrally without white longitudinal spots Hypsosinga
8 (6)	Opisthosoma anteriorly with a row of short, strong spines Cercidia	Opisthosoma, dorsal view (Heimer & Nentwig 1991)
-	Opisthosoma without spines   9
9 (8)	Tibia III with 2 rows of plumose trichobothria; opisthosoma pattern and habitus as fig. Mangora	Tibia III (Heimer & Nentwig 1991) Opisthosoma (Heimer & Nentwig 1991) Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Tibia III different   10
10 (9)	Opisthosoma densely covered with very fine, long and bright hairs; opisthosoma as fig. Agalenatea	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Different   11
11 (10)	Median apophysis of the male pedipalp projecting, distally bipartite; epigyne with very short scapus, originating on anterior margin; habitus as fig. Larinioides	Pedipalp, ventral view (Locket & Millidge 1953)  Epigyne, ventral view (Roberts 1995) Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Different   12
12 (11)	Opisthosoma uniformly green, yellowish or reddish, sometimes with small black points Araniella	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Opisthosoma with pattern   13
13 (12)	Opisthosoma extremely flat, dorsally not elevated Nuctenea	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Opisthosoma dorsally curved   14
14 (13)	Opisthosoma ventrally with a yellow longitudinal spot on the dark median stripe; dorsal pattern as fig. Aculepeira	Opisthosoma (Heimer & Nentwig 1991)
-	Opisthosoma ventrally different   15
15 (14)	Sternum bright yellow with small dark margin; habitus as fig. Zilla	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
-	Sternum dark, sometimes in the middle part a bit brighter   16
16 (15)	Opisthosoma longish oval with characteristic dorsal pattern Neoscona	Opisthosoma (Heimer & Nentwig 1991)
-	Opisthosoma anteriorly distinctly wider than posteriorly; pattern as fig. Araneus	Habitus (Roberts 1995)
17 (1)	Further genus: Paracymbium undivided, flatly attached to the bulbus; epigyne anteriorly with a broad chitinous wall or with a scapus; habitus as fig. Zygiella	Pedipalp (Heimer & Nentwig 1991) Habitus (Roberts 1995)

Further genera

• 1. Alpaida
• 2. Cyrtarachne
• 3. Cyrtophora
• 4. Gasteracantha
• 5. Glyptogona
• 6. Kaira
• 7. Leviellus
• 8. Lipocrea
• 9. Nemoscolus
• 10. Nephilingis
• 11. Poecilarcys
• 12. Siwa
• 13. Trichonephila