black and yellow spider - Leucauge argyra

L. argyra

I believe this is Leucauge argyra. Often found near water, and the webs may be connected to one another when several or more specimens are near each other, although they are not social spiders.

… Jeff Hollenbeck, 4 January, 2006 - 5:06pm

Jeff, we took a quick look through

the images in the guide and the only one that jumps out as maybe being the same pattern as this is

. See what you think. It would be great if we finally figure out what argyra looks like!

… john and jane balaban, 4 January, 2006 - 6:43pm

Yes

You are right. I do not not think I ever received a notification for your comment. I was going through the argyra images and saw it.
Then again, I may have overlooked and deleted accidentally.
Moved image to argyra.

… Jeff Hollenbeck, 29 January, 2006 - 12:21pm

Venusta Orchard Spider

This appears to be a female Venusta Orchard Spider (Leucauge venusta). Your specimen's pattern is a little different than some of our other images, but that could be attributed to general variation within the species. Any second opinions?

Nice image of the abdomen! Thanks for posting!

… Christopher Hunt, 3 January, 2006 - 3:01pm

Most likely.

Chris' ID is probably correct, but it would help to know what kind of a web it was sitting in (orb web in horizontal plane, or sheet web, or dome web). There is also another species in the Leucauge genus if I am not mistaken.

… Eric R. Eaton, 3 January, 2006 - 5:23pm

type of web

We couldn't get a really clear photo of the web but I'll try to describe it. I don't know the difference between the webs you mentioned. One of the spiders on the fence has a flat web against the chain link fence. The center appears to be like an octagon pattern around and around until the point where the spider sits. The other one has a web attached to the screened patio, her body is about 1/2" long, has her web in the corner going from one side to the other at a bit of a horizontal angle. The same octagon pattern in the center and then there seem to be three layers or more below her that appear to be woven a bit more randomly. In total, it seems about 2' high. In these lower levels, I just saw two spiders about 1/4" in size and below that, some really tiny spiders about a 1/16" also with the same pattern on their bodies. They don't seem to have moved in a couple of days. Can they just die on the web for no reason? The weather has been between the 50's and 70's lately if that makes a difference.

… SusanDoll, 5 January, 2006 - 11:43am

The webs

seem right for Leucauge. You might see them move during the day if they are startled or capturing prey. Otherwise, they are nocturnal.

… Jeff Hollenbeck, 5 January, 2006 - 4:44pm