Let me introduce you to a web master. Spider web, that is. This beauty is commonly called a Yellow Garden Spider. The technical name is Argiope Aurantia. They are common in most of North America. We have them in our garden and flower beds each year. This one was photographed while on vacation last summer in Missouri. I saw the spider web and spider with a background of yellow wildflowers and thought it created an interesting visual.

Here are some interesting facts about Argiope Aurantias from the University of Arkansas Anthropod Museum…

Females build large webs, up to two feet in diameter. The female usually eats her web each day and constructs a new one, often in the same place. The web consists of dry spokes supporting a spiral thread of adhesive silk. The hub is separated from the spirals by a free zone. The spiders rest head down day and night at the hub of the web over a conspicuous zigzag band of bright white noncapture silk known as a stabilimentum. The stabilimentum apparently affords protection, perhaps by camouflaging the spiders, startling predators, or acting as an aposematic warning of the presence of webs. It seems to be especially effective in preventing birds from flying through webs.

For another view of the same type of spider, see my earlier post :  By A Thread.

If you have a large monitor, clicking on the photo may provide a larger version.