This page has black and yellow garden spiders, spiny orbweavers, an orchard orbweaver, and a tropical orbweaver. The next page has golden silk orbweavers.
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Black and Yellow Garden spider
[A close view of a spider in the center of its web. The legs are yellow and black and the oval-shaped body is brown with tan spots. Both the legs and body aer substantial in size (relative to usual 'house' spiders.]

This spider makes a 'zipper-looking' zig-zag on its web.
[This view is zoomed out a bit from the prior one so that the entire 'zipper' as well as the spider are visible. The 'zipper' is approximately six inches long and goes from the center of the web toward the ground.]

Zoomed out view of the spider, the zipper, and the rest of the web
[The entire circle of the web is in the image and is somewhat visible against the leafy-green background. The spider is larege enough to be noticeable in the center of the web and the 'zipper' is just below her.]

This black and yellow garden spider snagged a butterfly in its web.
[This spiker has an orange/red patch on its back end, but the rest of the body is black and yellow with the stripes on the legs. The spider is near the orange butterfly partially encapsulated in the web. There are some black bugs crawling across the butterfly.]

I never saw the spider which made this web, but it's an impressive size as this series of images captures.
[A web seemingly in the middle of the air. There is a tree on the right and a tree and a car in the background.]

This image is a slight zoom out of the prior one. The sunlight makes the web nearly invisible, but it is anchored on one side to the tree on the right of the image.
[In the prior image only a few leaves of the tree on the right were visible. Now more of the tree is visible and the car in the distance is smaller. The strands of the web are barely visible against the bright skylight background.]

Continuing to zoom out the web is no longer visible, but the tree on the left to which the rest of the web is anchored is now visible.
Yes, the spider made a web which spanned this huge gap. Glad I didn't walk throught it!
[The web is no longer visible due to the sunlight. Leaves on the tree on the left are now visible. The car in the distance is now quite small.]

I thought this spider web had a very interesting bug in the middle of it. When I researched the 'bug' I learned it was the underside of a spiny orbweaver spider. It's tiny.
[In the center of a web with about 11 strands of white coming from it is a round spider with two red triangles coming from three of its sides (six total spikes). Legs are visible from the fourth side that does not have these spiny projections. The body of the spider seems like a hard shell and is white with four large black dots on it.]

The reverse side of spiny orbweaver spider isn't as colorful.
(This is a different spider than the prior photo.)
[The red spines are visible, but the rest of the spider is black with some patches of white.]

Yet another spiny orbweaver spider sits at the center of its web. The anchoring threads are quite a distance from the center.
[The threads coming from the center of this web are anchored to two thread which are way outside of the center portion.]

The colorful legs and body of an orchard orbweaver spider
[The spider hangs from the underside of its nearly horizontal web. Its legs are a translucent green. Its body is mostly black and white stripes with a bit of red at the top end.]

A tropical orbweaver spider in its web
[Two photos spliced together. On the left is the spider in the middle of a large web. The sections of the web are visible against the greenery and trail behind it. On the right is a close view of the underside of the spider. It is brown and red with a large thick body and relatively short legs. The legs are red with brown sections. The body is mostly brown with some red triangle-like sections on the stomach.]

Details of the tropical orbweaver spider web
[The spider and the center of the web are in the upper left corner of the image. In this quarter section of the total web are at least seven main threads from the center to the outer edge. A series of at least 40 concentric circle connector threads radiate from the center. The light hits the web such that the web is in detail and clearly visible and the greenery behind it is blurred.]

A cute little web
[Beside the water is a tall thin green stem with a vee'd section at the top. One side of the vee is pulled towards the ground in an arc and between it and the main stem a spider made a round web with many sections. ]

A misty dewy morning put droplets all along this web. Zoomed in view is on the right.
[Two photos spliced together. On the left is the entire web which extends from a curved tree branch down to the ground. The trees in the background are in the fog from the mist. On the right is a closer view of the segments of the web drooping with dots of water along the segments.]

Continue to page 2 to see the golden silk orbweavers.

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All photos © S. M. Garver