2 Garden Spiders?

At Holme Dunes on Wednesday I came across a Garden Spider Araneus diadematus walking across the path from the VC to the pines. I have had lots in my garden over the last few weeks (and probably all year) but not recorded them. This one was a typical colour form with a distinctive white cross on its abdomen.

Garden Spider Araneus diadematus

 

On Monday I had come across another spider walking across a pavement in Hunstanton during the short dry spell in the afternoon. It looked so unusual that I took it home and sent some photos to the county spider recorder, Pip Collyer.  From looking at the photos he said that he thought that it was a different colour form of Araneus diadematus and could just make out the faint signs of a white cross. Apparently there are many colour forms of this species and no-one has really studied them in detail and why they vary so much. Now I know why I don't usually try to identify spiders! This one is now somewhere in my back garden.