Ophrys araneola is a robust plant looking like O. sphegodes but bearing smaller flowers with green yellowish sepals and petals.

The small lip, always smaller than sepals, is brown with a yellow and quite wide margin. The mirror is bluish to reddish.

O. araneola blooms from March to April, earlier than O. sphegodes. Another species similar to Ophrys araneola is Ophrys virescens, which blooms about two weeks later.