Black-and-Yellow+Argiope+(Argiope+aurantia)

=Black-and-Yellow Orb Weaver=

Black-and-Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia)
Fig 1. //Argiope aurantia// spinning a web.

Taxonomy

 * Kingdom: Animalia
 * Phylum: Arthropoda
 * Class: Arachnida
 * Order: Araneae
 * Family: Araneidae
 * Genus: Argiope
 * Species: aurantia

Size
Female: 14-28 mm Male: 5-9 mm

Identifying Colors
The normal colors are black and yellow however there can be variation with brown and orange.

Description
The black-and-yellow garden spider can be found in southern Canada ranging throughout 48 states of the U.S., Mexico, and in some parts of Central America (1). These spiders inhabit gardens, tall weeds, and sunny areas with bushes and other shrubberies to support the magnificent orb webs they construct (2). In both male and females the abdomen possesses a set of flashy yellow or orange markings on a black background. The cephalothorax is covered with short, silvery hairs. Legs are all black with red or yellow segments near the body and contain three claws per foot (1). This spider can be spotted hanging head down in the center of their web waiting for prey.

Life History/Behavior
Like other Araneidae, //A. aurantia// has a venomous bite that it uses to victimize its prey (1). The web that these spiders build is very large ranging from 50-100 cm is diameter and is constructed vertically with a white, zig-zag stripe down the center (2). This bright-white non capture silk at the center of orb webs is known as the stabilimentum and serves a purpose for web advertisement so animals such as birds do not fly into the web. Like other orb-weaving spiders, //Argiope aurantia// is a typical sit and wait predator. //Argiope// spiders do not immediately kill their prey by biting but instead wrap a dense mesh of silk bands around the prey until it is immobilized. This behavior is known as the wrap attack strategy (3). In early spring, the spiderlings, numbering from 500 to 1000 emerge from the cocoon. An immature //A. aurantia// will camouflage itself in the stabilimentum. The spiderlings that do survive will mature in late summer and are usually unnoticed by the human eye until then.

Wiki page created by Rachman, C.

Photo
Figure 1. Photo taken by Will Cook. []