Category: Bugs

Interesting bugs/insects/spiders that I happen across

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Door spiders

This is what I almost walked into at my front door when I went to check the mail.

Two spiders on their webs in the front door
Door spiders

The lower one was the one that startled me first.

Lower door spider
Lower door spider

Grabbed my camera to take some pictures, and when I backed up for a slightly longer shot, I noticed the second one higher up. Here it is from outside.

The bottom spider’s web spans pretty much the whole doorway.

Door spider from outside

Here they are in their zoomed in extreme close up glory (click on the image for an even bigger version).

Door spider closeup
Door spider closeup

I’m thinking maybe I should start leaving the front door light on to attract some nice juicy bugs for them at night.

I guess that’s what you get when you don’t use the front door. On the plus side, I bet it makes a great deterrent against random people wanting to knock on the door.

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That spider

Well, after a little bit of Google searching, I managed to figure out what that spider was.

First I started at the International Society for Arachnology page. The web was kind of orb-ish, so I clicked on the Orb web spiders page. Lo and behold, there was a picture of the spider, Argiope aurantia. This spider apparently goes by several aliases: Yellow Garden Spider, Black-And-Yellow Argiope, Golden Orb Weaver, Yellow Argiope, Writing Spider, Golden Garden Spider. According to this page, the spider should be mostly harmless. Sure doesn’t look it.

So there you are. Yet another illustration of the power of the Internet :).