Silver Garden Orbweaver
Argiope argentata
Arachnida
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- About 1 year
- Size
- Medium
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Solitary
- Biome
- Tropical dry forest
- Range
- The Americas
- Movement
- Climbing
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Camouflage
- Status
- Common
About
The silver garden orbweaver is instantly recognized by the female's large, lobed abdomen with a brilliant silver-white sheen, suspended at the center of a wide orb web often decorated with a bold X-shaped band of white silk called a stabilimentum. Females reach up to 25 mm in body length while males are tiny at just 4 mm, and the species ranges across the Americas from California to Argentina.
Life cycle
- 1.egg sacA silk-wrapped egg sac shelters a clutch of eggs until the young are ready to emerge.
- 2.juvenileA spiderling emerges from the egg sac already in miniature adult form and starts catching prey almost immediately.
- 3.subadultA near-adult arachnid molts through several instars, growing larger and developing mature markings.
- 4.adultFully grown after its final molt.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Arachnida
- Order
- Araneae
- Family
- Araneidae
- Genus
- Argiope
- Species
- Argiope argentata