12.10.09

what kind of spider is this?

What is this spider? Click on the photo to see it larger. I photographed it down in Pennsylvania yesterday. HUGE body. Anyone know?

4 comments:

anandasata said...

Hi Ren!

I've always know these as the "common garden spider" but as I have hunted down an internet resource to confirm this, I've been largely unsuccessful in finding a definitive one. The path I keep being led down points to it being a "black and yellow garden spider" or just a "yellow garden spider" but while some of the textual descriptions seem plausible, none of the images match up exactly. (save here: http://www.rockbrookcamp.com/blog/nature-camps.html but I don't know that it can be completely trusted). I found a cool spider database: http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/15350 but again, no images are exactly what we're looking for. I'll see if I can find a book in the Library when I go in tomorrow...
Tracy

anandasata said...

I suppose you could submit your picture to the owner of the database and see what he says. I'd imagine he'd have a better idea and I'm sure he'd appreciate having a photo of a different variety, if indeed, it is this family/genus/species. (Argiope aurantia Lucas)

Anonymous said...

A. Ugly.

B. Garden Spider. See http://www.arkive.org/garden-spider/araneus-diadematus/info.html

ren said...

Thanks, folks! It really took me by surprise, larger than any spider I have seen yet in the wild. And such a bright yellow!