Argiope trifasciata (Forskål, 1775)

banded garden spider

Females

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Immatures or Unknown Sex

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How to Identify Argiope trifasciata (Forskål, 1775)

Family: ARANEIDAE Simon, 1895

Genus: Argiope Audouin, 1826

Species: Argiope trifasciata (Forskål, 1775)

Origin of Name: Argiope is derived from Greek, meaning "with bright face or with bright eye" and trifasciata is Latin for "three bands".

Official Common Name: banded garden spider

Males A = 2.25 mm  B = 2.81 mm  C = 1.88 mm

Females A = 4.43 mm  B = 8.86 mm  C = 1.88 mm

Distinguishing Characteristics

This species can be distinguished from other members of the same genus by its whitish abdomen with numerous, transverse and thin black lines.

Range

Southern British Columbia to Nova Scotia, south to Chile.

Typical Habitats

The web is made in weeds and tall grasses in fields and meadows.

Activity Patterns

Males mature late July to mid-September and females mature late August to autumn frosts. After the first frosts, eggs are deposited in brown, hemispherical cocoons and are attached to the lower parts of shrubs and herbs.

Prey

It has been thought that the web is attractive to adult males of the northern buckmoth (Horton, 1979). Like most spiders, this species is a generalist predator. Others have noted aggregations of A. trifasciata with high prey density (Olive, 1982).

Extra Reading

Horton, C. C. 1979. Apparent attraction of moths by the webs of araneid spiders. Journal of Arachnology 7: 88.

Olive, C. W. 1982. Behavioral response of a sit-and-wait predator to spatial variation in foraging gain. Ecology 63: 912-920.

Other Web Pages

Arthropods of Orange County, California: Banded argiope (http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Argiope%20trifasciata.htm)

The Nearctic Spider Database (http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/15415)