Yellow Garden Spider
Argiope aurantia
Appearance
- Black with orange / yellow markings.
- Females are up to 3 times the size of males. Male bodies can be roughly 5-10mm long, females 19-30mm.
Lifecycle
- Yellow garden spiders breed once a year.
- After mating the male dies, then sometimes eaten by the female.
- After egg-laying the female deteriorates – she becomes sluggish, thinner, some of her bright yellow colouring fades and she eventually dies.
- The eggs hatch in Fall although the young spiders stay inside the sac over Winter, emerging the following Spring and reaching maturity in Summer.
Habits
- These spiders are harmless to humans.
- They are most active during the daytime, seen in sunny fields amongst plants and flowers but sometimes along the eaves of houses and outbuildings.
- The webs are circular, up to 2 feet across and have a distinctive zigzag of silk in the centre. The webs tend to be 2-8 feet off the ground.
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