This is essentially a French orchid although it occurs sparingly in the neighbouring countries of Spain and Italy and perhaps as far north as southern Germany. O. araneola is one of eleven members of the O. incubacea group which are spread fairly widely around the western Mediterranean reaching as far East as the former Yugoslavia.
It can be fairly common in its favoured locations but is unaccountably absent from large, seemingly
suitable area's. Distribution is however poorly understood and this is perhaps unsurprising given that its known range overlaps with several similar species. Not least of the species with which it may be confused is O. sphegodes as this occurs throughout its range and can easily be mistaken for it, particularly where the plants are smaller than normal.
Generally however, O. araneola is a smaller flower with a lip that appears disproportionate in scale to the
stigmatic cavity and sepals. (Picture 4 gives a good sense of this). Despite the size of the flowers the plant itself can be relatively tall and sturdy, growing up to 45cms with as many as 15 flowers.
A good area to seek this orchid out is the Vercors of southern France where it's at its most frequent and where it does not occur with many similar Ophrys and this therefore allows identification to be made with some confidence. The extremely similar O virescens can easily be confused with this species but it is only very occasionally found in the far south of the region.
All the photograph's here were taken in late May in the Vercors National Park, around Plan- de- Baix.
The following three pictures feature hypochromatic plants of O. araneola.
