Argiope spider in August

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Argiope spider in August

August 20, 2015 by Mike Powell

It had been quite a while since I had last seen a Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia), so I was pretty excited to see one during a visit this past weekend to Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a tidal wetlands park along the Potomac River in Virginia.

The spider must have sensed my presence too, because she began to oscillate the entire web vigorously. I had to wait for her to settle down before attempting to get some shots. I was on an elevated boardwalk and the spider was considerably below the level of my feet. As a result, I had somewhat limited options for framing my shots, though I was able to photograph the spider from a couple of different angles, and was not able to get really close to the spider.

I was happy that I managed to capture the really cool zigzag portion of the spider’s web, a distinctive characteristic of this particular species.

Posted in Arachnids, Nature, Photography, Summer | Tagged Alexandria VA, Argiope aurantia, Black and Yellow Garden Orbweaver spider, Canon 50D, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, yellow garden spider | 8 Comments

8 Responses

on August 20, 2015 at 10:12 am | Reply Lee

Yuk, but nice photos. 🙂 Not much a spider person, but the Lord created them, so I can still enjoy your photos of them. I’ll let you get close to them. 🙂
on August 20, 2015 at 5:02 pm | Reply dianaed2013

as always fantastic detail
on August 20, 2015 at 6:59 pm | Reply Carol Dunnigan

In Florida they call them Banana Spiders 🙂
- on August 20, 2015 at 8:23 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  🙂
on August 21, 2015 at 5:12 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

it looks like a relatively big spider. Nice shots!
- on August 21, 2015 at 5:17 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Allen. These are pretty impressively-sized spiders, though the fact that I shot this at 600mm tends to magnify its size a bit.
on August 22, 2015 at 1:11 pm | Reply krikitarts

Lucky you, Mike. It’s been years–no, decades–since I’ve seen one of these in the wild. This has to be one of our most handsome and impressive spiders, and I’ve always been delighted when I’ve been able to find one. I’ve seen bigger ones in Australia and in a Madagascar exhibit in our zoo in Omaha, but they were quite drab compared to good old Argiope!
- on August 23, 2015 at 7:17 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Gary. A couple of years ago, I used to see these spiders regularly at my local marshland park, but they seem to have more or less disappeared. I enjoy watching them and am always impressed by their webs. I was amazed one time when I actually saw one of them catch a prey and wrap it up in silk that it extruded in sheets that looked like gauze bandages.