Here today, gone tomorrow
August 20, 2012
This spider, a Black and Yellow Argiope commonly lives in fields and gardens. It has a distinctive abdomen (large back section) that is egg-shaped with the coloring that gives it its name. This is a male distinguished by the characteristics of the web, a thick zig-zag of white silk. It builds the web on the outer part of a female's, preferably in a sunny location with little or no wind. Reportedly, each night, they eat their web and build a new one. After mating, the female lays more than a thousand eggs on one side of the web, covering them with a papery sac that can be up to an inch wide, and then she dies. Predators to this species include birds, mud daubers and other types of wasps, shrews and lizards. In this case no new web was found the next morning. A new species of spider had taken up residence in the location.

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