Black and Yellow Argiope

Description:

The males tend to grow about 3/4 inch long with the female spiders growing larger at almost an inch and a half long. Both spiders have a cephalothorax with silver hairs on it. The abdomen oval shaped with black and yellow coloring. Legs of these spiders are black with red or yellow bands. Each leg has three claws on the end.

Habitat:

They live in fields and gardens and can be found on shrubs, tall plants, and flowers. These spiders prefer sunny places with little or no wind to build their webs. Nightly, they eat their own web and build anew. Their webs are in a spiral shape that start from the center out. The males have a zig-zag pattern through the middle.

Notes:

The spiders flying insects that get trapped in the sticky web. The most common ones are aphids, flies, grasshoppers, bees, and wasps. Their predators include birds, some species of wasps, shrews and lizards. The females lay their eggs in paper-like sacs which the babies live in until the through the winter til the spring. Once the eggs are laid, the females die