Yellow Garden Spider

 Greetings,

Most of you are probably noticing more spiders around as we head towards fall and young ones are maturing.  I found this beautiful Yellow Garden Spider this week.  It is a member of the Orbweaver family.  These are the spiders that build the large round webs that many people say look like a bicycle wheel with spokes.  The one in the photo below is a female, the males don't have the bright yellow colors. 


The white zig zag pattern in the web is referred to as stabilimenta.  It is thought that this gives added support in the center of the web, making it more difficult for larger insects to escape.  

Hope you will love this idea.  I have a vegetable garden in my backyard and I have a problem with the non-native cabbage worms on my kale plants.  I have been picking them off my plants and then throwing them in the webs of the many Orbweavers in my yard!  It is fun to watch the spiders attack instantly and then wrap their dinner in silk.

Comments

  1. mrsbwrenAugust 22, 2021 at 7:56 PM

    I do that all the time! Great fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SakiAugust 24, 2021 at 12:54 PM

    It is interesting that the female is the one with the bright colors while the male is more muted. I wonder what other species this applies to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 30, 2021 at 8:29 PM

    Saki, in the Orbweaver family, the females are larger than the males. I know around here, the male of the common Banded Garden Spider also is less colorful than the female. As a family though, that isn't necessarily the norm.
    Sue

    ReplyDelete

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