Yellow Garden Spider

For Throwback Thursday, this is one of our biggest and most prominent orbweaver spiders, a Yellow Garden Spider I met back in 2020 [1]. I actually wanted to link to a post of these large spiders when I was talking about the much smaller Bold Jumping Spider a couple days back, only to realize I hadn't posted about them here [2]! Doing a Throwback Thursday post was the quickest way to remedy this deficiency in the blog.

These are 1 of our biggest spiders and are also among our most prominent with their black-and-yellow coloring. While you can get eyestrain looking at a lot of our orbweavers (e.g. Basilica Orbweaver, Marbled Orbweaver, Orchard Orbweaver), the Yellow Garden Spider is comparably a cinch to spot and ID.

Although all spiders are somewhat venomous, the Yellow Garden Spider's venom isn't especially potent. It's generally considered about as bad and dangerous as a bee sting. It's been theorized their black-and-yellow color is an example of aposematism, where the coloring is meant to make it easy to spot them and avoid a (somewhat) dangerous creature (usually because it's venomous or poisonous). It's also possible this is a weak example of Mullerian mimicry, where the black-and-yellow reminds potential predators of black-and-yellow stinging insects like most yellowjackets and some bees. (I say this is a weak example just because the spider is structurally quite a bit different from yellowjackets and bees.)

They're also known for the zigzag that's part of their web. It's been suggested that it might function as a decoy for something that might want to prey on the spider, or it might confuse insects that might think it's not a web but a good place to land, or it might help birds to see the web and prevent them from blundering into a sticky mess [3]. This assortment of ideas suggests to me that we're just guessing as to its purpose.


September 4, 2020 at Duke Farms
Photo 94483767, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] AKA Black and Yellow Garden Spider AKA Golden Garden Spider AKA Writing Spider AKA Zigzag Spider AKA Zipper Spider AKA Black and Yellow Argiope, corn spider AKA Steeler Spider AKA McKinley Spider; you can call these guys practically anything.

[2] Before Tumblr inexplicably nuked a blog I was using there. In response I left Tumblr, destroying the Tumblr counterpart to this blog. That Tumblr counterpart almost certainly had an old Yellow Garden Spider post.

[3] Just like you don't like walking through a spider web, birds probably don't appreciate flying through them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Watersnake

Image
This April I went to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with the hope (among other hopes) of seeing the Northern Watersnakes during mating season. There were 2 problems with this: I think it was slightly late in the season for this. The boardwalk trail where I had seen them in the past was partially closed due to repairs. So although I didn't see any of the 2+ intertwined snakes that I'd seen in the past, but there were still Northern Watersnakes warming themselves in the sun: April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272117862, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And here's another one coming out of the water. April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272119139, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Read more

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

Image
Like quite a few birds, this bird is easier to identify when spotted with her significant other ; she's a Brown-headed Cowbird . Due to their tendency to be monogamous plus plain old birds-of-a-feather behavior, I usually see them with prominently brown-headed males around, greatly improving my confidence in IDing them. My understanding is that Brown-headed Cowbirds are the only obligate brood parasites in my area. Obligate brood parasites have essentially lost all their parenting skills, and thus if they were ever unable to fool other birds into raising their young, they would (almost certainly) go extinct [1]. There are, however, other brood parasites in New Jersey. These are called facultative brood parasites, and these birds will usually raise their own offspring, but will also engage in brood parasitism. (Exactly when birds perform facultative brood parasitism seems variable; one source said it occurred when resources were scarce while another said it occurred when resource
Read more

Rooftop Turkey Vultures

Image
I met these Turkey Vultures by just walking out of my apartment. (I theoretically could have gotten a picture without going outside, but that extra layer of glass can degrade picture quality a little.) Although they don't show up on these rooftops daily, they're not an uncommon visitor to my apartment complex. Similar to this spot of the woods , I wouldn't expect this to be a great place to find carcasses. I'm thinking they're here mostly because: They don't have to worry much about predators up there. They get a pretty good view of the area in case something should happen to succumb. (This apartment was near the top of a hill, providing a better view than most of the other apartments.) Since this picture was from February, it's probably a slightly warmer spot, especially near those furnace vent pipes. Although these are Turkey Vultures, it's also not unusual to see Black Vultures up there too. February 28, 2023 at Finderne Photo 264703396, (c) jpviole
Read more