The Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) is a small venomous arachnid. It is not an insect because it has eight legs (insects have six legs).  It is also called the Yellow Garden Spider, the Golden Garden Spider, the Zigzag Spider, the Hay Spider, and the Corn Spider.

The Black and Yellow Garden Spider has yellow and black markings on its abdomen. Its head and thorax, called the cephalothorax, is mainly white or silver-looking. It has eight long, thin legs. 

It grows to about 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) long. 

It is common to North America, Canada, Mexico, and Central America.

The Black and Yellow Garden Spider spins a circular web among grass or the eaves of houses and sheds. In the centre of the web is thick zigzag-shaped silk, called a stabilimentum. 

It eats insects that it catches in its sticky web. 

The Black and Yellow Garden Spider is not aggressive, and the venom that it injects into human when it bites is not considered to be dangerous.

The female lays eggs at night and covers them with silk that she spins from glands, called spinnerets, at the tip of her abdomen. She makes her egg sacs in the shape of a ball. She makes 1-4 egg sacs with over 1,000 eggs inside each one. She guards her egg sacs from predators. 

The baby spiders are called spiderlings.  

[Location of photographs: Washington DC, USA]

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM