Argiope aurantia
Mark Moran
The Black and Yellow
Argiope is a common orb web spider. Orb web means it spins a
web like a circle. Female spiders are much
larger than males, growing almost an inch and a half long.
Males grow about 3/4 inch long. Both spiders have a
cephalothorax
(small front body section) with silver hairs on it. The
abdomen
(large back section) is egg-shaped with black and yellow
coloring. Legs of these spiders are
black with red or yellow bands. Each leg has three claws on
the end. Black and Yellow Argiopes
live in fields and gardens. They can be found on
shrubs,
tall plants, and flowers. The web of this spider
spirals out from the center and can be two feet across. The
female builds the large web, and a male will build a smaller
web on the outer part of her web. The male's web is a thick
zig-zag of white silk. William Welch ©a
natural selection Emile Zeringue Black and Yellow Argiopes
eat flying insects that get trapped in the sticky web. The
most common ones are aphids, flies, grasshoppers, bees, and
wasps. The spider hangs with her
head down in the center of her web, waiting for
prey
to be caught. Sometimes she hides off to the side with a
thin silk thread attched to her web. When an insect hits the
web, the spider feels the vibrations and comes
running. These spiders prefer
sunny places with little or no wind to build their webs.
Each night, they eat their web and build a new
one. After mating, the female
spider lays eggs on one side of the web, then covers it with
a papery sac. The egg sac can be up to an inch wide. Over a
thousand eggs may be inside. After laying eggs, the
female dies. The baby spiders hatch from their eggs in the
Fall, but they stay inside the sac through
Winter. In the Spring, the young
spiders leave the sac and go off on their own. These spiders are most
active during the daytime. Their predators
include birds, some species of wasps (especially mud
daubers), and other spider-eaters, such as shrews and
lizards. William
Engstrom
