Banded Garden Spider

Notes:

Argiope trifasciata is a cosmopolitan species that is thought to be widely introduced to new places via humans and commerce. Aside from the United States and southern Canada, it can also be found in Central & South America, Australia, the Mediterranean region, Africa, Sri Lanka, the South Pacific Islands, and China. An annual species, males die not too long after mating and females become weak and die at the end of autumn. Egg sacs are laid by female in autumn. Egg sac is about 10-18mm in length and shaped like a kettledrum, flat on one surface and rounded on the other; covered in tough, brown, papery silk and suspended amid tangled vegetation at periphery of web. Females can lay more than one egg sac, sometimes three or four. Each sac can contain almost 1,000 yellowish eggs. Spiders “hatch” from their eggs mid-winter but do not emerge from the safety of the egg sac until the following spring.