Mr. Argiope

(December, 2015). I haven't touched this page since 2007. Back when I did a lot of gardening, I was fascinated by these spiders and popped a really crappy GIF picture on the web. Probably 1997. In typical fashion, though, given the state of the web at the time, people found the picture and sent me their own pictures, so I posted them. I'm keeping the site here, although the last picture I posted was in 2007.

Two links about these spiders which are still active (as of 12/15) are:

Lots of Argiope/spider info from the University of Michigan.
Texan argiopes photographed by Dick Locke (which he gave the name "Giganticus Bigassus Texspideroid" - nice).

This is our friend the "writing" spider. I thought he/she was pretty huge before he/she disappeared (do fish eat huge spiders?). Technically, this is an Argiope aurantia, otherwise known as a black and yellow garden spider, or a "writing" spider, because he weaves a line of white X's down the center of his web.

And yes, I know it should be Ms. Argiope...

The picture is actually upside-down, but it looks better this way.

Here's another argiope picture sent to me by an interested party (Louie Verreault LVerreault@trwd.com):

And huge one found by 5-year old Morgen Knott (Perkiomenville, PA), who named it ``ZIG-ZAG'' and sent me the pic.

And rather lean one sent to me by a woman named Colleen.

And a closeup sent by Adam from Michigan.

And one with an egg sac (All pictures are here), from Tom Allen in Cupertino, CA:

Two pictures by Rob Matos:

And one from Manning Oachs:

And one from David Ziegler:

And more from Eddie Davis in Richlands, VA. The female is the big one on the left, and the male is the wimpy one on the right....:

And one from Scott Spencer (Florida):

Michael Dietz (Peralta, New Mexico) submitted one, who acquired a mate a few days later:

Another from Mr. Dietz And yet another from Mr. Dietz

And one from Linda (Mulvane, Kansas):

And one from Mark (Jamestown, Ohio):

And one from Mark Binkowski (Lexington, KY):

And two from Terry Nance (Charlottesville, VA) -- eating a Swallowtail Butterfly in the second picture (Here's a blow up of the first picture):

Some kind of argiope, from Laguna Atascosa park in South Texas (near Brownsville). Sent by Jim Michel.

One with seven legs, sent by Randy Mosteller, photographed at the Zilker Botanical Gardins, Austin, Texas.

Here's one from Jeff Hosterman, Smyrna, GA.

And two pictures of one feasting, from Hailey Halderman, Topeka KS.

From Jennifer Arthur, Versailles, MO

From Jesse Guajardo, Brownsville, TX

From Stacy Carpenter, Chelmsford, MA. Photos taken by John Dick.

From Hendrik Sharples, Portland OR.