Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Hidey Spidey



Peek-a-boo.

I see you.



This is a Black and Yellow Garden spider, a.k.a. Black and Yellow Argiope, a.k.a. Golden Garden spider, a.k.a. Golden Orb Weaver, a.k.a. Writing Spider (Argiope aurantia).

She was in the middle of the path where I was walking, and I wanted to photograph her in the middle of her web. But Jasmine had other ideas and disturbed it, making her flee to hide among the leaves.

According to this website, these spiders eat their webs every night and rebuild the next day.

The males of the species look quite different.

They look a bit scary, but aren't dangerous unless you're a fly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I ran into one of these webs (literally) in my walk in the woods last week. I managed to get a nice photo of Mrs. Spider, but I don't think she was too pleased about her web being destroyed.

Niobium said...

Help me! Heeeellllp Me!




(sorry, couldn't resist)

KFarmer said...

those are my favorite spiders- the webs are works of art and the spiders are so beautiful.

robin andrea said...

Garden spiders are so pretty. I had forgotten how different the male looks. Rather bland in comparison. But still a fine looking spider.
Great pics as always.

Anonymous said...

i love argiope spiders. they are sometimes called writing spiders because of the little 'sentences' they weave into their webs. i think they should call them zipper spiders, because that's what I think the weaving looks like!

Dave said...

When I was a kid, we used to call them banjo spiders for some reason.

Rhodent said...

I have seen a lot of these, but their appearance has always intimidated me enough that I try to keep a distance from them. they also seem to get VERY big around here!!!

Happy and Blue 2 said...

Yikes..
If you got caught in their web and then went to sleep would they find you and eat the web off you or would you be eaten too..