Spiderzrule

Here's some photos of those common Garden spiders from the Orb Weaving family. My apologies if there are some Araneus on pages where they don't belong but they are very hard to classify. Try this page for a species guide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/1972/bgpage
Orb weavers (Araneidae) are often brightly coloured with rounded abdomens, some with peculiarly angled humps or spines. However, there is considerable variation in size, colour and shape in this group. They are often recognized for building beautiful, large, round webs, on which they rest, head downward, waiting for prey. The webs consist of a number of radiating threads crossed by two spirals. The inner spiral begins in the centre, winds outward, and is made of smooth threads like the radiating threads. It covers only the central 1/3 of the web. The outer spiral begins at the edges and winds inward. It is made of more elastic, sticky threads, coated with a liquid substance. One of the largest and most commonly encountered members of this group is Argiope aurantia, the yellow garden spider and we have photos of them on their own page. Garden Orb Weavers are NOT dangerous (but can bite as can most spiders) and rid your garden of many unwanted insects. They only live for one season and die off as Winter approaches, leaving their egg sacs behind to hatch out next Spring. Please select a section below. Here's a short video (3Mb) sent in by Aaron Knapp. Click here.

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Unidentified Spiders 2012	Unidentified Spiders 2011	Unidentified Spiders 2010
Unidentified Spiders 2009 (1)	Unidentified Spiders 2009 (2)	Unidentified Spiders 2008 (1)
Unidentified Spiders 2008 (2)	Unidentified Spiders 2007 (1)	Unidentified Spiders 2007 (2)
Unidentified Spiders 2007 (3)	Unidentified Spiders 2006 (1)	Unidentified Spiders 2006 (2)
Unidentified Spiders 2006 (3)	Unidentified Spiders 2005 (2)	Unidentified Spiders 2005 (3)
Unidentified Spiders 2005 (1)	Unidentified Spiders 2004 (1)	Unidentified Spiders 2004 (2)
Unidentified Spiders 2003	Unidentified Spiders 2002	Unidentified Spiders 2001
Spiders in Amber	Closeups	Ant Mimicking Spiders
Argiopes/St. Andrew's Cross	Barn Funnel Weaving Spider	Basilica Spiders
Bird Dropping Spiders	Black House Spiders	Bolas Spiders
Brown Recluse Spiders	Candy Stripe Spiders	Common House Spider
Crab Spiders	Cyclosa Conica	Daddy Long Legs
Daring Jumping Spiders	Fishing Spiders	Funnel Web (Aus)
Furrow Spider	Garden Orb Weavers	Giant House Spider
Golden Orb Weavers	Grass spiders/Funnel Weavers	Ground Spiders
Hacklemesh Weavers	Hobo Spiders	Huntsman Spiders
Jewelled Spiders	Jumping Spiders	Ladybird Spiders
Leaf Curling Spiders	Long Jawed Orb Weavers	Lynx Spiders
Marbled Orb Weavers	Micarathena	Mouse Spiders
Mygalomorphs	Net casting Spider	Nursery Web Spiders
Parson Spiders	Pirate Spiders	Pseudoscorpion
Purseweb Spider	Redback Spiders	Red Spotted Ant Mimic Spiders
Running Crab Spiders	Scorpion Spiders	Solfugids/Camel Spiders
Southern House Spiders	Spider Tats	Spitting Spiders
Steatoda	Tailless Whip Scorpions	Tarantulas
Trapdoor Spiders	Venusta Orchard Spiders	Wandering Spiders
White Tailed Spiders	Widow Spiders	Wolf Spiders
Woodlouse Hunters	Yellow & Broad faced Sac Spiders

ORB WEAVERS/GARDEN SPIDERS

Orb weavers (Araneidae) are often brightly coloured with rounded abdomens, some with peculiarly angled humps or spines. However, there is considerable variation in size, colour and shape in this group. There are only 5 types of spiders in this species. Large webs spun between cotton rows often are made by the star-bellied orb weaver, frequently the most abundant web-spinner in cotton and a beneficial predator of the many insects that destroy cotton. When the web is found, the spider may be located under a leaf to which one of the foundation lines of the web has been attached. One of its legs touches the line to alert the spider when prey is caught in the web. Identification is relatively simple because of the characteristic star-shape of the abdomen formed by a series of cone-like bumps (protuberances). The spider is brown with a white spot on the anterior portion of the abdomen. Adults reach a length of about 3/8 inch. Adults and immature spiders differ only in size. Numbers generally increase as the season progresses, reaching a peak in August and September when large numbers of immature spiders cover the countryside. The density of these spiders in cotton fields averages about one per 10 metres of row but peaks at one per 2 metres. The star-bellied orb weaver does not hunt its prey but waits for prey to get caught in its web. Thus, it is likely that most of its prey fly or jump into the web. Adult fleahoppers, bollworm-budworm moths, bigeyed bugs, pirate bugs, damsel bugs and honeybees are frequent prey of this spider. There is no evidence that this spider feeds on bollworm or budworm eggs under field conditions, but it may consume one small larva every 2 days.
(Info - Texas Agricultural Service) Please select a section below fro more orb weavers.

Garden Orb Weavers (1)	Garden Orb Weavers (2)	Garden Orb Weavers (3)
Garden Orb Weavers (4)	Garden Orb Weavers (5)	Garden Orb Weavers (6)
Garden Orb Weavers (7)	Garden Orb Weavers (8)	Garden Orb Weavers (9)
Garden Orb Weavers (10)	Garden Orb Weavers (11)
Shamrock Orb Weavers	Orb Weaver Spiderlings	Tropical Orb Weavers
Marbled Orb Weavers	Giant Lichen Orb Weavers	Golden Silk Orb Weavers
Cat Face Orb Weavers	Araneus Alsine-like/Iviei	Araneus Diadematus
Araneus Nordmanni	Star Bellied Orb Weavers	Furrow Spiders

STAR BELLIED ORB WEAVERS Acanthepeira

5 August, 2008: Hi Glen, I photographed this little Orb Weaver while it was working the other night. These Orb Weavers are all over the place from late June through first frost in my area. Feel free to use the pictures if you want. --Damy


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14 March, 2008: Hi Glen, I was taking a walk in the woods yesterday and almost ran into this extreme booby-trap. An Orb Weaver had its web spun between some very thorny Blackberry branches. So it was a double threat! Anyway, I avoided being bitten or snagged, and painstakingly took these 6 photos. I'm still a photo noob, so I had to place my hand behind the spider to get my camera to focus on it. Feel free to use the photos if you want. --Damy


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