Wow! That is an awesome photo, rob.

Thanks for sharing.

We used to have those. They were one of the things that when I saw them I knew cooler weather would soon be here.

Beautiful. Do you know what kind they are? Are they poisonous?

Yikes, that's what my vacuum cleaner (or the long attachment for the handheld Dyson) is for.

I don't like spiders at all.

Nature is amazing. Last week a wasp flew by carrying a grasshopper. It was the strangest sight. I told DH about it and jokingly said "Maybe he was giving him a ride." DH said "He probably said to him "Would you like to go to dinner? Well, you're it!"

Here's a photo from the internet.

We just call them garden spiders. This link has similar nondescript names.

Never been bitten, but they can and it's similar in venom to bees. Which I didn't know until just now.

Wasps especially the type called mud daubers place insects inside of where they lay their eggs so that the newly hatched young will have something to eat.

I didn't realize spiders lived together as Mr. and Mrs. In fact, I have heard that some female spiders eat their spouses after mating them.

They are argiope aurantia, but my grandmother called them writing spiders because of the zigzag pattern in the center of the web. I always try to protect the large egg sacs they leave behind. Cool photo!

The males roam in search of a female, building a small web near or
actually in the female's web, then court the females by plucking strands
on her web. --wikipedia

While walking home from bus stop today, we saw ants dragging a wolf spider across the sidewalk. I suppose it was dinner.

That zig zag pattern is called a signature. These (and al) spiders are beautiful and very interesting.

Beautiful, but glad not in my house!

The old superstition was if a signature spider wrote your name, doom was imminent for you!

Don't all female spiders eat their mates after fertilization?

Female spiders don't see their mates as suitors but as potential prey. A male must be very, very wary when approaching a female, but cannibalism amongst spiders is grossly exaggerated.

They don't live together, ever. Males of any spider species are roamers, some build small webs near a potential mate in order to be nearby. Most spiders aren't big web builders at all.

I love your picture, Rob. Argiopes are fabulous spiders, no matter what species they are.

The link had something I thought was cute (and then less cute):

_________________

Yellow garden spiders breed twice a year. The males roam in search of a
female, building a small web near or actually in the female's web, then
court the females by plucking strands on her web. Often, when the male
approaches the female, he has a safety drop line ready, in case she
attacks him. The male uses the palpal bulbs on his pedipalps
to transfer sperm to the female. After inserting the second palpal
bulb, the male dies, and is sometimes then eaten by the female.

_________________

The other male was also near the other females. I got lucky this year. We're enjoying them.

Nice shot! Love to see nature up close!

It actually one of my favorite spiders, mostly because it makes and remakes its big web in the same place, usually in the garden, rather than somewhere that I walk through and end up with the web all over my face.

I also would capture a live stink bug in my house and rather than smash it and have it release its stink, I would sometimes toss it into the web of one of these garden spiders. Usually the spider is on it, wrapping it up in webs completely within seconds, as in this second photo.

I am much more bothered and perturbed by this type of spider I've found on and around our property several times.

If I screamed every time I saw a spider, I'd be doing it over a dozen times a day, in this season, at least.

But ... that wouldn't be a big problem, as there's rarely anyone close enough to be bothered by it.

Some of 'em, if you blow on 'em, will pull the strands on their web in quick succession, to swing themselves around in a circle quite a number of times.

o j

If spiders give you the creeps don't watch this. I find it fascinating and have seen it many times, particularly in the fall.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=videos+of+spider+ballooning&view=detail&mid=D925A917FD48A51EF3B3D925A917FD48A51EF3B3&FORM=VIRE

I found two of the yellow and black writing spiders in my mom's garden. I had never seen or noticed them before. My sister and I found some bugs to throw in their webs and my sister got a video of it wrapping them up. Totally cool. I check on them when ever I go to Mom's. They are beneficial bugs band nothing to be afraid of. My concern is we cut back the lilies and other flowers to the ground before snowfalls. Should we leave plant s be so not to disturb the babies. I read the babies hatch before winter but use the thing mom spider wove to hold eggs to stay in over winter. I haven't seen a "egg holder" or whatever it's called but don't want to detroy them.