My Pet Spider

Argiope aurantia

In truth, she is not really my "pet" spider, per se, but I do like to "feed" her grasshopper snacks by tossing a couple into her web and watch her wrap them up for later.

She is not the largest spider that I have ever seen, but she is pretty big, especially compared to the typical little wolf spiders that I tend to encounter. She is mostly black, but with a good amount of yellow markings on her abdomen, and her cephalothorax is pretty much a solid gray. She has little hair-like structures poking out from her legs.

InsectIdentification.org tells me that the common name for her species is... wait for it... black and yellow garden spider. However, the scientific name is Argiope aurantia, which is kind of pretty, if I do say so myself.

My pet spider and her egg sac

Now, some of you may have noticed that I keep referring to my pet spider as a female. It is not due to some incorrect belief that all spiders are female, however. Female spiders are typically larger than male spiders, and with this species the females can be as much as four times as big. Also, the males tend to not stand out as much with the bright colors like the females do. Also, and this was the grand giveaway for me, she made an egg sac just off to one side of the web.

I was excited to see that she had made an egg sac, since I kind of prided myself on helping her be able to do it by keeping her larder well-stocked with grasshoppers. However, now I am kind of sad because these spiders die after laying the eggs. But I guess that is how God arranged things to work out. At any rate, her hatchlings will emerge from their eggs before winter sets in, but they will hang out in the egg sac until the weather warms up in the spring. Then they will head out to make webs of their own and do their part to control the numbers of grasshoppers, flies, and other potential trouble makers.

As a side note, I came across 10 Fascinating Facts About Spiders that makes for an interesting and quick read about spiders.