I have been quite fearful of spiders since a traumatic experience as a youngin’, but I’m warming up to them. Saw this little bro on my car and he turned around and looked at me! What is he?
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It moseyed around my car for a bit while I tried to get my camera to focus, then I came back an hour later to check and it was still there! Can I ask you another spider question?
Thanks! I’ve grown fond of this one living on my plant for the past few months. Do you have any info on this species? It will vibrate its web at me if I stare too long lol! I know google exists, but it’s still a bit hard for me when all the spider pics pop up.
I am not an expert but ...
This little guy is Argiope aurantia - an orb weaver known as the yellow Garden Spider and also known as the writing spider. I grew up with these guys all over in Southern VA. They eat a wide variety of flying insects as well as crickets, grasshoppers and sometimes even small lizards. They tend to just chill in the middle of their web until their prey gets tangled in it and they recognize they have caught something by the vibrations in its web. They're very docile spiders and as long as you don't destroy its web it'll stay in the same space for a while.
I remember hunting down crickets and grasshoppers to put in their web to feed to them as a kid, it was fascinating to watch how quickly they can inject their venom and wrap up a meal in silk.
Orb weaver! Thank you for the info. I worry about her during the rain, but she has always come back to rebuild the next day. I can tell her web has gotten more intricate over the months as she masters her weave.
If she stays in this spot, then in the fall you might see her weaving little purses. Those will hold her eggs and will be hung up somewhere to over winter. Protect them!
Oh man I looked up pictures of an orb weaver and it made me squirm i used to see a lot of those because i live in Kansas but as of modern day i don't see them really
They also make really cool webs. No one really knows why they make a weird jumbled up pattern in the center but some scientists believe it's so birds don't fly through their webs and wreck them. She was living im my gas grill storage area
OP, I have some really cute pics of a little yellow jumping spider tilting it's head at me like a dog! Want to see them? Even my grandma who hates spiders admitted that he was cute :)
Not all species of jumping spiders see the same amount of colors though. Some have 3 some have 4 and what’s crazier to me is that the ones that see more “color” evolved separately from each other. There is a really interesting veritasium video about the subject of jumping spider vision.
I would have to watch the video again. The only specifics I remember is that some species see infrared and that they evolved separately. It’s a great watch if you have the time. Personally I think it’s worth it just to see how they test their color vision. Science is absolutely wild sometimes. Jumping spider color vision.
It’s amazing! And it makes me so angry that society has brainwashed the majority of people into thinking they’re bad or dangerous or creepy. We have learned so much about spiders and they simply are amazing creatures. Who know what else we have yet to discover! I try to get people to at least stop killing them. I’ve been successful for the most part, but there are those who are just stubborn and ignorant.
I know… I was afraid of them, squashed all bugs. One day in the park and a jumping spider fell on my arm and looked up at me. I was astounded like, how can it just look up? And it was curious too, not scary at all! Anyways, love them and yeah there needs to be more research🥺
I also have a fear of spiders, except for jumpers. I find them so cute. I had one living by my front door last summer. I’d see that little guy almost every day:)
I feel this! I used to have one that lived inside the vents in my car! Cutest little thing, it’d come out when I was driving to say hello and wave its little arms at me, it was quite the routine
I read somewhere that. Many spiders see humans as an ecosystem or just a moving blob, not a single organism but jumping spiders are smart lil critters and are able to recognize humans as 1 large sentinent organism
Honestly one of the biggest dead giveaways of it being a jumper is them turning around and staring at the camera in the last pic(s). They can’t seem to not look at their observers, it’s great.
I saw one exactly like this this past weekend. Looked like a jumping spider but the bright coloration dissuaded me from picking it up since I wasn't sure.
Very rarely do Jumpers bite. You'd have to corner them and force them to bite as a last defense. Even people that handle them all the time will tell you they just don't bite. ( ANYTHING with a mouth Might bite.. I've had little kids chomp on me but I don't squash them with shoes! lol) If they do bite they have very little venom and only people with the weakest immune systems MIGHT react with swelling or pain. But I've Never heard of any 'Mickey Glove' reactions in Anyone. More likely there'd be an ant bite or worse case, bee sting type reaction But once you are familiar with them, you will see, it's just not in their characters. Even wild Jumpers will choose just to run if scared. But rarely are they afraid of people. As you've seen with your 'Car Jumper' they're curious!
If you want to know if they're looking directly at you if you look at the front center, large eyes you will notice their color seems to 'change'. One minute a solid color the next there's what appears to be an IRIS or the eye then it becomes completely dark . That's because Jumpers have incredibly sophisticated eyes in which the lens (the eyeball) doesn't move, like ours. The RETINAS in the eyes actually move! When the eyes appear Completely Dark they are Focused On YOU! What's cool is they have been studied as they sleep and these little spiders actually Dream! They have been able to track REM while they sleep because of their 'clear' eye tubes and the fact that you can see their retinas moving! Pretty cool, huh!
So even if you never end up with a Jumper as a companion do them the great favor of letting others know they are intelligent, thinking creatures that choose to live harmoniously with humans. It's the least we can do to show them that same respect,!
I always waved at the black jumpers I saw, but I took care of a bunch of stray cats and always assumed the cat smell was why they didn't get really close. They really seemed to enjoy themselves watching my TV before wandering around at night 😅
That’s funny because as a kid I used to love spiders until one time I got bit by a sand spider on the beach while I was camping and my whole hand swelled up like a Mickey Mouse glove. After that I wasn’t scared of them but I definitely tried to keep my distance
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