Yellow Garden Spider

This is one of the most common spiders you are liable to encounter. They are fairly large for a North American spider, the female’s body measuring about an inch (24 mm). Most of those you see are females as, is typical I spiders, the male is much smaller and not nearly so colorful. The female has yellow and black spots on a rich brown body. The legs are light colored near the body with the rest of the leg being black with one small pale band. The entire head is white or silver, from which it gets its scientific name Argiope, which translates to “silver-face.”