Black-and-Yellow Argiope

Another interesting creature found in my garden ..... black-and-yellow argiope spider (Argiope aurantia).

This is quite attractive and one of our more conspicuous species of orb weaving spiders. Orb web means it spins a web like a circle. The species name "aurantia" comes from medieval Latin “aurantium” meaning “orange (the fruit)”. Other commonly used names for this spider are golden orb-weaver, yellow garden orb-weaver and the writing spider. The black-and-yellow argiope breeds once a year. Adult males roam in search of potential mates. When they find a female, they build a small web with a white zigzag band across the middle either nearby or in an outlying part of the female's web. Potential males court by plucking and vibrating her web.

After mating, each female produces one or more (usually no more than three) brown, papery egg sacs. They are round in shape and up to an inch wide—each containing 300 to 1,400 eggs. The female attaches her egg sacs to one side of her web, close to her resting position at the center, since suspending the cocoon is particularly effective against ant predation. The multi-layered wall of the cocoon provides barriers against burrowing larvae of insect predators, though some wasps and flies lay their eggs in A. aurantia egg cases.

One study found that in addition to A. aurantia, 19 species of insects and 11 species of spiders emerged from A. aurantia egg cases. The vast majority, however, are eventually damaged by birds. In areas with a cold winter, the eggs hatch in the late summer or autumn, but the hatchling spiders become dormant and do not leave the egg sac until the following spring. Spiderlings generally resemble small adults. Once they mature, males leave their webs and wander in search of females. Female spiders are much larger than males, growing almost from 3/4" to 1 1/8". Males grow between 1/4" to 3/8". Both spiders have a cephalothorax (small front body section) covered with short, silvery hairs. The shiny, egg-shaped abdomen has yellow or orange coloring on a black background. The black-and-yellow argiope’s legs are black, with red or yellow bands.

Like other orbweavers, each leg has 3 claws per foot, one more than most spiders. Orbweavers use this third claw to help handle the threads while spinning. Predicated upon climate, these spiders may live a little over a year from their hatching in the fall until the first hard frost the following year. In warmer temperatures, the female may live for several years but males usually die after mating in their first year.

These spiders prefer sunny places with little or no wind to build their webs. Once they find suitable sites, they will stay there unless the web is frequently disturbed, or they can't catch enough food. Black-and-yellow argiope spiders often construct and repair their webs after dark. Their orb webs can be up to 2 feet in diameter and are very complex. To start the web, a black-and-yellow argiope firmly grasps a grass stem or window frame. The female then lifts her abdomen and emits several strands of silk from her spinnerets that merge into one thread. The free end of the thread drifts until it touches the substrate. Next she makes bridge lines and other scaffolding to help her build the framework of her web. She creates a hub with threads similar to spokes of a wheel. She switches to a sticky silk for the threads spiraling around this hub, which actually catches her prey. This process may take several hours to complete. When finished, a black-and-yellow argiope female eats the temporary scaffolding and the center hub. The spiders often add stabilimenta, or heavy zigzagging areas, to their webs. The stabilimenta resembles writing, hence one of their common names. The purpose of web stabilimenta is unknown, though some believe it may attract prey, provide structural stability, or prevent birds from flying through the webs. What is known is that only spiders that are active in daytime use stabilimenta.

A. aurantia is most active during the day. They are carnivorous predators, attacking flying insects that get trapped in its web. Their orb web captures aphids, flies, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, wasps and bees. The female spider hangs, head down, in the center of its web while waiting. Often she holds her legs together in pairs so that it looks as if there are only four of them. When an insect hits the web, the spider feels the vibrations and comes running. Occasionally, you may see her hiding off to the side with a thin silk thread attached to her web, which quivers when prey lands in it. (A female black-and-yellow argiope will eat a tasty item up to twice her size.) As is the case for all spiders, A. aurantia has a venomous bite that paralyzes its prey. The venom also digests the prey's body contents in order for the spider to ingest. These spiders have relatively poor vision, but are quite sensitive to vibration and air currents. When disturbed, the spider might first vibrate the web in an attempt to make itself seem bigger. Failing that, the black-and-yellow argiope drops to the ground and hides. The list of prey for this serviceably beneficial includes mosquitoes, moths and other flying insects including some species of wasps (especially mud daubers). Although people are concerned about being bitten by the A. aurantia, they are not dangerous. They may bite when harassed but it is no worse or harmful than a bee sting to a healthy adult. (The very young and very elderly in addition to individuals with compromised immune systems should exercise care or be supervised in areas where spiders are an issue.) The black and yellow garden spiders and other types of orbweavers are generally harmless but can be a nuisance when they build large webs in places inconvenient for humans. They are very beneficial to our environment and quite attractive—unless the mere sight of a spider triggers a case of arachnophobia!

More Buzz

Daddy Long Leg Clusters

This year the cellar spiders have been gathering in clusters in mass quantities. Most likely due to the major rainfall we have received since last September. This is one cluster that seems to like the corner on the porch above the bedroom door.

The cellar spider or daddy longlegs (Pholcus phalangioides), also known as the skull spider due to its cephalothorax looking like a human skull, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. Females have a body length of about 9 mm; males are slightly smaller. Its legs are about 5 or 6 times the length of its body (reaching up to 7 cm of leg span in females). Its habit of living on the ceilings of rooms, caves, garages or cellars gives rise to one of its common names. In Australian homes, they are considered beneficial because it is sometimes believed they will kill and eat the venomous Redback spider.

This is the only spider species described by the Swiss entomologist Johann Kaspar Füssli who first recorded it for science in 1775. Confusion often arises over its common name, because "daddy longlegs" is also applied to two other unrelated arthropods: the harvestman and the crane fly.

Pholcus phalangioides has the habit of shaking its web violently when disturbed as a defence mechanism against predators. They can easily catch and eat other spiders (even those much larger than itself, such as Tegenaria duellica), mosquitoes and other insects, and woodlice. When food is scarce, they will prey on their own kind.

Because they originally came from the tropics, these spiders do not seem to be aware of seasonal changes and breed at any time of the year. The female holds the 20 to 30 eggs in her pedipalps. Spiderlings are transparent with short legs and change their skin about 5 or 6 times as they mature.

Day Two of Bee Pictures

More Buzz at the Big Build

Tarantula on our Morning Walk

Most spiders are small, inconspicuous arthropods which are harmless to humans. Their beneficial role in keeping insect populations in check far outweighs the hazard posed by the few spiders that occasionally bite humans. Very few of the nearly 900 species of spiders in Texas can hurt people. Only two groups--recluse spiders and widow spiders-- are considered poisonous to humans.
Tarantulas, jumping spiders, wolf spiders and some other spiders worry people who mistakenly believe they are seriously poisonous. Although these spiders are often large, hairy and formidable-looking, their bite is typically less harmful than a bee sting. People who are extremely allergic to spider venom, though, react severely to any spider bite.
Many people have a phobia of spiders. However, knowing how to distinguish harmless from dangerous spiders, how to prevent them from entering the home and how to control those that do enter can prevent needless concern and reduce the chances of harm to humans.

Tarantulas in Texas are members of the hairy mygalomorph family in the genus Aphonopelma. These large, hairy spiders are brown to black and more than 3 inches long when full-grown. Females, larger than males, have abdomens about the size of a quarter.
Tarantulas hunt at night and spend the day under rocks, in abandoned mouse burrows or in other sheltered areas. They may be seen in the evening or late at night along country roads or trails. Migrating male tarantulas can be commonly seen for a few weeks in early summer. This migration’s purpose is not completely understood, but it may occur as males seek mates.
Tarantulas are sometimes kept as pets and can become quite tame. Although they can be handled, be careful, because they can quickly become disturbed and pierce the skin with their fangs on the chelicerae. The hair on some tarantulas may irritate the skin, so take care when handling them.
Tarantulas need a constant supply of water in a flat dish into which they can lower their mouths. They eat live crickets, mealworms, caterpillars or other insects and can go for several weeks without food, sometimes refusing to eat before molting. Tarantulas can crawl up glass and escape through small openings, so they must be kept in a container with a good lid.

Moth Hummers at the Big Build

At first glance the Hummingbird Moth looks like a hummingbird. But the Hummingbird Moth is not a hummingbird at all. It is a moth. They are sometimes called a Sphinx Moth or a Hawk Moth. The hummingbird moth can sometimes be mistaken for hummingbirds or even baby hummingbirds, however, baby hummingbirds do not fly.


And those little feathers out of place on the top of its head are not feathers, they are antenna. Another clue is if the creature allows you to get closer to get a second look without giving you an earful and zipping away at the speed of light, it is probably a hummingbird moth. Also, if it has brown striping or yellow and black striping along its back (and it's not a bumble bee), it's most likely a hummingbird moth.
The hummingbird moth belongs to the family of moths technically called the Sphingidae family or Sphinx family of moths. A hummingbird moth can be considered to be a medium to large moth. They tend to fly strong and fast like a hummingbird with a rapid wing beats. The hummingbird moth will feed on a flower much like a hummingbird. But instead of a beak and tongue to lap the nectar, they have little straws to sip the nectar from a flower. These little straws are called a proboscis.
There are many different types of Hummingbird Moths. These can include the Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, the Tersa Sphinx Hummingbird Moth, and the White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth.

The moths that frequent the Big Build are White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moths. White-lined Sphinx Moths have an adult wingspans exceeding 5 inches. Larvae can be just as long, with most having a prominent horn at the rear of their fleshy body. When alarmed, these larvae rear up their heads in a threatening sphinx-like posture and may emit a thick, green substance from their mouths.
The White-lined Sphinx Moth ranges in length from 2 1/2 to 3/12 inches. It has a prominent brown head, a brown thorax with 6 white stripes and a brown abdomen with paired dark spots on each segment. The forewings are brown with a buff-colored band from base to tip and viens outlined in white. The hind wings are pink, turning to dark brown near the margins.

Sphinx Moths emerge at dusk from their hiding places and begin feeding on the nectar of flowers. Their size, combined with their rapid wing beats, allows them to hover and feed in the manner of hummingbirds, for which they are sometimes mistaken.
This manner of flight requires a great deal of energy and creates a good deal of heat in the moth's body. For these reasons, moths feed exclusively on nectar and seek flowers which produce large amounts of this water source which also contain high amounts of sugar. Such is the case with the Salvia Family which the White-lined Sphinx Moth is responsible for pollinating.

Dung Beetle Found at the Big Build

Here is a picture of the dung beetle as he moved his prize across the driveway :) See dog poop is a good thing - not a mess!

Some interesting information on our little friends .... Males and female beetles are between ½ and 1 inch long and overall metallic blue-green and copper. The front of the head is flattened and golden bronze. The male has a long, curved horn extending from the front of the head (clypeus) while the slightly larger female has a tubercle. The front legs are modified for digging.There are a number of dung beetles or "tumblebugs" in the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Canthon, Copris, Deltochilum and Dichotomus and other genera) that are important in recycling animal feces. Some are small, dark dung-feeding scarab species (e.g., Ataenius and Aphodius species). One species, Onthophagus gazella Fabricius, was introduced by USDA scientists in the 1970's and is now common throughout the state. In parts of Texas, they remove 80 percent of the cattle droppings. Most species are dull to shiny black and 1-3/8 inch or less in length with wing covers (elytra) that may have ridges (striae). They are often attracted to lights at night. These beetles are related to the sacred scarab of ancient Egypt, Scarabaeus sacer Linnaeus. This species plays an important role in nature: reducing fecal material in nature and thereby reducing the habitat for filth-breeding flies; considered beneficial and medically harmless.

Unwelcome Visitor at the Big Build

Last night we had another centipede come for a visit. The attached pictures are from another visitor that stopped by last year or so. This specimen was spotted a couple of times in the house but ultimately met his demise in the pool. So the photos were taken after his drowning. At a distance or when they are dead, I find them very fascinating.

We typically see them once or twice a year. Usually outside or occasionally in the house. All that we have seen in the house have been in the dining room or living room. But last night he came crawling across the bedroom floor! He came out from hiding at about 10:45 PM. I was totally freaked. I don't mind seeing them crawling about when I'm at a distance and very mobile and when I'm wearing shoes. This time this was not the case, I felt very vulnerable mostly because I'm usually sleeping at 10:45 PM on a week night. Basically the thought of one crawling on me in the dark when I'm asleep gives me the heebee geebies! Plus this one was the biggest yet. It had to be 10 inches long.


The tricky part is catching them. When they are crawling around exploring they move in a predictable manner at a reasonable speed. But once they are alarmed, they go nuts. Running all over at lighting speed. Plus another not so nice feature, they sting. And we've been told their bite is bad. Worse than a scorpion. The key was to capture him and get him outside ASAP without startling him. Note you really don't want to/can't kill them because if you don't get it right on the first pass (which is difficult because of their hard exoskeleton) they will go nuts. So luckily it crawled into Joker's bed. When it made that move Dave quickly swept up Joker's bed, opened the door to the balcony and beat the bed on the side of the turret until the critter fell to the ground.


I'm happy to report there were no casualities :)