Spider surprise!

I went out the back door to shake a towel that I’d gotten some debris on… and saw this amazing beautiful argiope spider. She just showed up here… how, I have no idea – she must have just hiked it in.



She’s HUGE. Two and a half inches top to bottom, two inches side to side. For a sense of scale, the thing she’s caught in her giant web is a WASP. Not a great big wasp, but still, it’s not a little bug.


15 replies
  1. admin
    admin says:

    Yah… I love the silver and gold markings. It’s in low light in the evening, so it doesn’t catch the sun – but when it does, it’s almost metallic.

  2. artkouros
    artkouros says:

    She’s a beauty. I love spiders. I prefer for them not to give me kisses while I sleep at night, but I’m quite content to have them around otherwise. Before I moved there was a little one who lived in my computer desk…we had many long conversations.

  3. bronxelf_ag001
    bronxelf_ag001 says:

    Yay!! What a pretty girl. Thank you for posting these. Spiders are often so badly maligned, when they’re so pretty and they perform such a valuable function in nature. 🙂

  4. belenajake
    belenajake says:

    *is very jealous*

    I didn’t have the digital when there was one in the backyard last year, and by the time I remembered to buy film, the birds had gotten her.

    What a gorgeous girl!

  5. kgj
    kgj says:

    See, that is why I love your journal. That thing would have sent me screaming, not for the camera 🙂 Really, really cool pics!

  6. admin
    admin says:

    me too! The webs are always such a delight to look at. We’ve had several large araneids, including one who makes his web across the back door of the house each night, causing us to duck under it to get to the grill… his most amusing exploit was catching a firefly, which continued to blink in its shrink-wrapping, attracting other fireflies to come and look! This is the first time in about five years that I’ve had one of the massive Argiopes; I hope she lays a huge sack of eggs for us.

  7. anul
    anul says:

    Hello, I’ve come upon your journal a few days ago and added you (thanks for adding me back). I’m highly interested in spiders; especially of this kind. Naturally I’m curious, is she still there ? has she woven an egg sack yet ?

  8. admin
    admin says:

    Howdy! Welcome to my friends list!

    Yes; she got HUGE, and then made a very big egg sack. I’ve fed her some of the spent moths, and they seem to be very nourishing – she’s huge again. I’m expecting another egg sack soon, because she looks like she’ll burst otherwise. I’ve heard they can make up to three.

    She’s such a beautiful thing.

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