Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)
Black and Yellow Garden Spider
Description: The females of this species are large and beautifully marked. The male is insignificant in comparison to her bright yellow and black pattering and banded legs.
Web: Enormous orb web with two strips zigzag patterning. The white zigzag is obvious but another method for locating webs is to look for grasses and weeds bent into a semicircle. This is essentially the frame of her web.
Habitat: They live in overgrown pastures, meadows, woodland edges, gardens and many open areas with grasses and weeds.
Diet: Grasshoppers and flying insects make up the majority of these spiders' diet, but they are not picky. A gift to gardeners, these spiders frequently catch and eat insects such as stinkbugs and Japanese beetles. They wait in the center of the web until an insect becomes entangled. They quickly immobilize the prey with a bite and several wraps of silk.
Eggs: These spiders reach max size in mid-late August and lay their papery, round egg sacs in low vegetation.
Defenses: They can bite but never will unless you handle them, but their main defense is just dropping out of the web upon approach. Not all individuals do this but some quickly drop out and return to the hub of the web once the disturbance has passed.
Web: Enormous orb web with two strips zigzag patterning. The white zigzag is obvious but another method for locating webs is to look for grasses and weeds bent into a semicircle. This is essentially the frame of her web.
Habitat: They live in overgrown pastures, meadows, woodland edges, gardens and many open areas with grasses and weeds.
Diet: Grasshoppers and flying insects make up the majority of these spiders' diet, but they are not picky. A gift to gardeners, these spiders frequently catch and eat insects such as stinkbugs and Japanese beetles. They wait in the center of the web until an insect becomes entangled. They quickly immobilize the prey with a bite and several wraps of silk.
Eggs: These spiders reach max size in mid-late August and lay their papery, round egg sacs in low vegetation.
Defenses: They can bite but never will unless you handle them, but their main defense is just dropping out of the web upon approach. Not all individuals do this but some quickly drop out and return to the hub of the web once the disturbance has passed.