Yellow Garden Spider

Description:

These are some of the largest and showiest of the spiders commonly encountered in Pennsylvania. Yellow garden spider females range in length from 19 to 28 millimeters. The carapace is covered with silver hairs, and the eight eyes are procurved with the lateral four eyes nearly joined and seated upon two projections or humps on either side of the front of the carapace. The second, third, and fourth pair of legs are black with the femora yellow to red. The front legs are frequently entirely black. The abdomen is an elongated oval that is pointed to the rear, notched in front, patterned yellow and black, and has two anterior humps or shoulders. The males are 5 to 8 millimeters in length and their legs are lighter in color than those of the females. The immature spiders have banded legs. The egg cocoons are deposited in the late summer and are spherical, brown papery sacs. The web is large (50- to 100-centimeter diameters are not uncommon) and orientated vertically with a white, zigzag stripe down the center, which is called the stabilimentum. The exact function of this structure is unclear.

Habitat:

They are seen in gardens, tall weeds, and sunny areas with bushes and other supporting structures on which they build their large orb webs. Yellow garden spiders are found throughout most of the United States.