Subject: spider
Geographic location of the bug: Central Arizona, USA
Date: 10/14/2017
Time: 03:46 PM EDT
Please identify this spider for me I’ve moved into the mountains from the desert and finding a while new world of insects
How you want your letter signed: John Anderson
Dear John,
This is a harmless Orbweaver in the family Araneidae, and based on images posted to BugGuide and Spiders.Us where it states: “Habitat: Web is often constructed on buildings and other man-made structures, especially near outdoor lights. You can also find this orbweaver in shrubs and open woodland areas, though they are not common among tall grasses. Web: Large, vertical, orb-shaped web is usually built at least a few feet off the ground amid shrubs, trees, fences, buildings, etc; they are opportunistic and will use whatever ‘framework’ they can. Moulder (1992) notes that the web can be as much as six to eight feet off the ground. The diameter of the web is about 2 feet or less; it has about 27 radii and 63 spiral threads, as reported by Kaston (1977). Web may be attached to buildings or fences in urban and suburban areas. The spider occupies the hub (center) of the web, hanging head down, during the night; it usually hides during the day, though in the summer or fall when they are full-grown, they may spend some daylight hours in the web, as well. Like many orbweavers, this species takes down its web each morning by eating it, thus recycling the proteins within it and using them to re-build a fresh web for the night.”