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Sticker of Yellow garden spider
Bug card No. 1487 of 1,500

Yellow garden spider

Argiope aurantia
Name means: “gilded silver-face”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The yellow garden spider has a big black body with bright yellow patches and a white front. It builds a large round web and sits right in the middle, head down. In the centre of its web it weaves a thick zigzag line of silk.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
From southern Canada down through the United States and Mexico to Colombia, in sunny gardens and fields
Length
0.5 to 2.8 cm (0.2 to 1.1 in)
females 19 to 28, males only 5 to 9
Top speed
about 2 km/h (1.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting

Watch out! Read all about it on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It eats insects that fly into its web. It shakes the web hard to tangle them up.
For real!Photo of Yellow garden spider
Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Yellow garden spider about 2.8 cm long (1.1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.8 seconds

How big is Yellow garden spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its web can be up to 60 centimetres across.

2

Nobody knows for sure what the zigzag in the web is for. It might hide the spider, attract insects or warn birds not to fly into the web.

3

Its scientific name means gilded silver-face.

4

If danger comes, it can drop out of its web and hide on the ground.

5

A female often stays in the same web spot for the whole summer.

you asked

Most asked questions about Yellow garden spider

?Why does the yellow garden spider make a zigzag in its web?

Scientists are not sure. It might help hide the spider, catch insects or warn birds.

?How big is a yellow garden spider?

Females are 19 to 28 millimetres long, and males are much smaller, only 5 to 9 millimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Argiope aurantia
Named by
Lucas, 1833
Group
Spiders
Family
Araneidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
Lives on
North America, South America
Also known as
Black and yellow garden spider, Golden garden spider, Writing spider, Zigzag spider

Where the facts come from

  1. Argiope aurantia (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Spiders

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