Along Came a Spider

Dateline:  June 10, 2011*

I mowed around the dead annual tickseed to give this guy a chance

I always get a little sad when it comes time to mow the meadow area of my yard. I know in my mind that it is the pathway to rejuvenation, yet I still try to mow around that one late bloomer. This week brought an additional dilemma. While mowing down the spent tickseed (Coreopsis spp.) in anticipation of rosy camphorweed (Pluchea baccharis) taking its place, I noticed a grouping that was covered with juvenile garden spiders. I steered around (I don’t use a rider, I have a self-propelled walkbehind) to save them from the fate of being swallowed up in the clipping catcher and having their tiny webs ruined. There are dozens of juveniles making a home in my yard this month.

I have dozens of juveniles throughout the front “meadow”

The Yellow Garden Spider, a.k.a. Black and Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia) is a large orbweaver that does not have a retreat near their web so they are usually found in its center. They like sunny areas among flowers, shrubs, and tall plants. They provide pest control and tend to stay in one place unless the web is frequently disturbed, or they can’t catch enough food there.

Sometimes they will grab a butterfly, but that’s all part of the food chain in action

They are easily identified by the stabilimentum (reinforced area) in web which is a vertical zigzag band above and below the middle of the web. Juveniles make a circular stabilimentum in the center of the web.

Yellow Garden Spiders are quite colorful

They can handle pests 200% larger than themselves such as this bird grasshopper or the lubber shown in the featured photo at top.

Like all spiders, black-and-yellow argiopes are carnivorous. They capture small flying insects such as aphids, flies, grasshoppers, wasps and bees and immobilize this prey with a venomous bite. A female can take prey up to 200% of her own size. They may bite humans if harassed, but this bite is considered harmless.

They disable leaf-footed bugs, a common pest

At night they will capture beetles that may try to come in the house

Yellow Garden Spiders are food for birds and lizards. They serve ichneumonid wasps and some flies which lay their eggs in the spider’s egg cases. One study found that in addition to Yellow Garden spiderlings, nineteen species of insects and eleven species of spiders emerged from their egg cases so they are an important species in our beautiful wildlife garden and should be accepted and appreciated. source

Spiders shed the exoskeleton several times as they grow

Just be certain they don’t have high hopes of taking on bigger prey! 😉

Be careful if they start looking at the neighbor’s horses

*This tale was originally published by Loret T. Setters on June 10, 2011 at the defunct national blog beautifulwildlifegarden[dot]com. Click the date to view reader comments.