Argiope aurantia
(Black and Yellow Garden Spider)

Featured spider picture The spider species Argiope aurantia, commonly known as Black and Yellow Garden Spider, belongs to the genus Argiope, in the family Araneidae. Argiope aurantia spiders have been sighted 138 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Argiope aurantia includes 2 countries and 31 states in the United States. Argiope aurantia is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of August.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Argiope
Species: Argiope aurantia

Common Name (AAS)

Yellow Garden Spider

Other Common Names

Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Black and Yellow Argiope, Garden Spider, Writing Spider, Golden Orb-weaver

Author

Hippolyte Lucas, 1833

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 138 confirmed sightings of Argiope aurantia (Black and Yellow Garden Spider), with the most recent sighting submitted on February 21, 2021 by Spider ID member ktw318. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 138 sightings because of certain Argiope aurantia sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 83% of the time, Argiope aurantia spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 80)
Sex: 59 female and 4 male.
Environment: Argiope aurantia has been sighted 92 times outdoors, and 5 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (52). On flower (2). Low foliage (24). High foliage (3). Ground layer (3). Freshwater river, lake, stream (2). Open field, pasture, grassland (4). Forest (2).

Location and Range

Argiope aurantia (Black and Yellow Garden Spider) has been sighted in the following countries: Mexico, United States.

Argiope aurantia has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Seasonality

Argiope aurantia has been primarily sighted during the month of August.

January:
February: 1
March: 1
April: 1
May: 9
June: 6
July: 10
August: 37
September: 33
October: 23
November:
December: 2

Additional Remarks

One of the largest members of the orb weaver family Araneidae in North America. Because of its size and bright coloration, it’s one of the most commonly known and recognized by observers.
This species takes most of its potty breaks at night, and often leaves its web to do so (Curtis & Carrel 2000).
As a defensive strategy, this spider may rapidly shake and vibrate in its web; the shaking blurs the spider and makes it appear bigger than it really is.
Egg sacs are made of tough brown silk, are spherical or pear-shaped, about 20-25mm in diameter, and can contain 400 to 1,200 yellowish eggs, sometimes even more. Females can make 3 or 4 of them, roughly one or two weeks apart. Spiderlings (baby spiders) overwinter inside the egg sac and emerge in the spring.