Yellow Garden Spider

Notes:

These spiders produce venom that is harmless to humans, but helps to immobilize prey items like flies, bees, and other flying insects that are caught in the web. The web of the garden spider contains a highly visible zigzagging X pattern called a stabilimentum. The exact function of the stabilimentum is unknown, but its purpose may be to alert birds to the presence of the web so that they don’t fly through and destroy it by mistake. The spider may eat and re-spin its web each night.