Gorgeous Spider

[Angela Spangler]

Saw this beauty while walking by our pond.

 

[WesternGuy]

First, welcome to the Forum - this is a nice shot - this one looks like it might be dangerous if you got in its way - don't know, because we don't get such colourful spiders up here in the Great White North. :mrgreen:

Do you have any idea what's up with what appears to be "excess" web material running through the centre of the image where the spider is? Just curious, that's all.

WesternGuy

 

[cgipson1]

Welcome! Nice spider... I like spiders!

 

[sm4him]

Looks like some kind of orb-weaver spider; their webs often have those jagged, thick spots in them. I've read about why before, but I don't really remember, and it's too late for me to be curious enough to go look it up.

 

[Angela Spangler]

Yeah, not sure what the purpose of the thick webbing is...all I know is he was HUGE.

 

[Forkie]

sm4him is right it's an orb-weaver.

No one knows exactly why they make the zig zag in the web. A couple of theories are that it camoflages the spider in the middle of the web because it blends with the spider's stripes and another is that because their webs can be so huge, it alerts birds to the web to prevent them flying through it and destroying it - almost like the manifestation dots you get on glass doors in shops.

 

[50mm]

We always called it a garden spider. They are big and harmless. For a wild kingdom nature lesson, pull the rear legs off a grass hopper and toss it into the web and see what happens.

 

[jwbryson1]

We had this identical spider in our backyard 2 years ago and it stayed with us for about 3 months. It never seemed to move. One day, I dropped a bug into its web and MAN, I nearly fell over backwards when that thing took off running for the bug. It quickly wrapped it up in webbing and we watched as it ate the bug over a period of days. It was incredible.