Argiope aurantia is the commonly-called Black and Yellow Garden Spider, or Writing Spider, seen in gardens everywhere. Found these two in the bushes in front of the house.
From the Wikipedia article:
The web of the yellow garden spider is distinctive: a circular shape up to 2 feet in diameter, with a dense zigzag of silk, known as a stabilimentum, in the center. The purpose of the stabilimentum is disputed. It is possible that it acts as camouflage for the spider lurking in the web's center, but it may also attract insect prey, or even warn birds of the presence of the otherwise difficult-to-see web. Only those spiders that are active during the day construct stabilimenta in their webs.
A view of the back of one of them:
And a view of the underside of the other:
Right after I snapped the picture above, the spider dashed out onto the web to grab an insect that flew into the web. You can see Argiope carefully making a mummy out of him to have later for lunch:
It's amazing the amount of activity that takes place in the garden/bug realm that we rarely see.
From the Wikipedia article:
The web of the yellow garden spider is distinctive: a circular shape up to 2 feet in diameter, with a dense zigzag of silk, known as a stabilimentum, in the center. The purpose of the stabilimentum is disputed. It is possible that it acts as camouflage for the spider lurking in the web's center, but it may also attract insect prey, or even warn birds of the presence of the otherwise difficult-to-see web. Only those spiders that are active during the day construct stabilimenta in their webs.
A view of the back of one of them:
And a view of the underside of the other:
Right after I snapped the picture above, the spider dashed out onto the web to grab an insect that flew into the web. You can see Argiope carefully making a mummy out of him to have later for lunch:
It's amazing the amount of activity that takes place in the garden/bug realm that we rarely see.
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