http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2241/scarynt9.jpg
the other day i was walking in my backyard and i almost walked into this spider and im terrified of spiders so i screamed but then i decided to take a picture of it so i did. now im wondering what kind of spider it is. it has some really kewl designes on it. scary to look at though.
2007-07-03 14:20:39 · 9 answers · asked by failurebydesign 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
could be a black widow maybe
2007-07-03 14:24:32 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 5⤋
Yabo is the closest when he tells you it's an orb weaver of some kind. The other answers so far are unfortunately either pretty much useless or completely wrong. It's not any Argiope that I've ever seen (definitely not the 'Golden Orb Weaver'/"writing spider" - actually Black-and-Yellow Argiope), and it's certainly not a black widow or any kind of non-orb-weaving spider, like a Wolf spider. It's most definitely not a funnel-web spider, of which, by the way, none of the North American types are more than mildly annoying apart from the Hobo spider which seems to produce rather nasty bites. I don't think it's a Marbled Spider - the abdominal pattern and the rest of the body look wrong to me (although I could be wrong on this - there may be variations in the color and patterns in different parts of the US). It would help to know where the photo was taken. I'd put it down provisionally to some variety of Araneid and say that it's harmless, but definitely scary-looking. If you can get any other photos, that would probably help.
2007-07-03 15:59:23 · answer #2 · answered by John R 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It could be a type of garden or wolf spider.
It isn't a Brown Recluse, as it doesn't have a brown fiddle on it's back. Thank Goodness!
They patterned Charlotte (played by Julia Roberts) the spider after a wolf spider when they filmed Charlottes Web as they felt it would make for a prettier spider for the movie.
Perhaps the links below will help. There are lots of pictures of spiders.
2007-07-03 15:07:49 · answer #3 · answered by Positive-Pixie 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
It's a very common spider with many different names. It's usually called golden orb weaver or sometimes called a writing spider. Harmless, but big and scary none the less. I had one in my backyard for a few months that was about three inches long. Leave it alone and let it eat all of the bugs you really don't want in your yard. The patterns will differ, but they will always look similar, with black and yellow.
2007-07-03 14:31:52 · answer #4 · answered by Cee Cee H 1 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I don't know The picture was pretty fuzzy so it was hard to tell from the spider itself. It is NOT a black widow because the hour glass mark is on the bottom of the spider and they wouldn't live out in the middle of the yard. Since I couldn't tell more I looked at the web and from th peculiar structure i deduced that it is possibly a funnel-web in that case you should find it again and (wearing close-toed shoes) crush it because they are one of the few spiders in North America that are deadly.
2007-07-03 14:34:23 · answer #5 · answered by ambassador 4 Christ 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
it looks like a 'yellow garden spider' - it is hard to tell though with the way it is positioned. check out pictures of it on the net, i really think that this is the name of it.
2007-07-07 06:06:17 · answer #6 · answered by Daniel F 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's a type of orb weaver spider. There are several differnent type. That one is called a golden orb or sometimes a marbled orb weaver. I have a cousin of it called a spiney back orb weaver in my garden now. It looks kind of like a crab.
2007-07-03 15:23:58 · answer #7 · answered by yabo 2 · 3⤊ 2⤋
That would be the common, "make'em scream" spider.
2007-07-07 05:23:56 · answer #8 · answered by B 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here is another link to golden orb weaver.
http://www.nhm.org/research/entomology/common_insect_la/golden_orb_weaver.htm
2007-07-03 15:56:51 · answer #9 · answered by michael971 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋