Our Orb Weaver Spider In the Garden
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After much discussion we have discovered that we have an orb weaver spider in our garden! And boy do they move fast when creating a spider web!
The first picture is my spider from my driveway – which had taken its web down by this morning. The SECOND photo has been labeled as a Labyrinth Spider – which to be honest does NOT look like any other Labyrinth spider I could find online.
And the THIRD photo is labeled as a Redfemured Spotted Orb Weaver spider, that to be honest does NOT look like any other Redfemured Spotted spider I could find online!
BUT to me – all of the three spiders below look the same! What do YOU think???
(note the 4 black dots on the back and the red banding on each leg)
Photo Courtesy of Hilton Pond
HOWEVER, this morning weety left a link suggesting it is a Neoscona crucifera spider, which looks like this:
Interesting huh? In fact ALL of the spiders above show the same four black dots and if you look closely a sort of cross on the back between the black dots. ALL of the spiders look like this last picture to me as well with the unique markings. And when I research the Neoscona crucifera they all look really similar. So what do YOU think??
So this morning I actually wrote this post and set it to pre-post later today claiming that it is basically an orb weaver spider as initially suggested by Jessica, but I just didn’t know what species of orb weaver spider it was.. But NOW I’m leaning towards the Neoscona cruciferaI since I saw Wendy’s comment with it after researching it some more.
Todd (one of our readers) works in an entomology department and said he would try to find out Monday what we had!! SO I’d like to wait to declare a winner to see if their entomology department has any input!!
Let me know your thoughts on our mystery spider!! I’m going to head out in my driveway late tonight to see if the web reappears again!!
Wednesday,we had a spider like this in our front yard in Northern California!
can't wait to hear what Todd says!
I don't know, but this whole post kinda creeped me out. I'm not much of a spider fan… I hope you find out what it is though. 🙂
I have an orb weaver I. My back yard. The web suddenly appeared Sunday night, and was go e Monday morning ! Monday night, late, it was back, only a few feet away from the original spot ! Big ! Fast !! I have photos of both webs. I was shocked to see the Spider back last light, boy was that fast I thought !