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Black-and-yellow Argiope
Scientific Name: Argiope aurantia
Family Name: Linyphiidae
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Male 1/4 - 3/8 inches, female 3/4 - 1 1/8 inches. Cephalothorax has short silvery hair. Legs black with reddish or yellow bands near body. Abdomen egg-shaped, conspicuously marked with yellow or orange on black. Habitat: Among shrubbery, tall plants, and flowers in meadows and gardens. Range: Throughout the United States and southern Canada; not common in the Rocky Mountains and Canadian Great Basin area. Food: Small flying insects. Web: Spiraling vertical orb radiating out from the center. Life Cycle: Female fills spherical egg sac, up to1 inch wide, with tough brown papery cover. Female attaches it to one side of web close to resting position, then dies. Eggs hatch in autumn, young overwinter in sac, then disperse in spring. Male builds web in outlying part of female's web, making a white zigzag band vertically across the middle. Information: This spider seems to prefer sunny sites with little or no wind. It drops to ground and hides if disturbed. [Milne, Lorus and Margery, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980]