Dead Garden Spider on her Egg Sac?
Location: Santa Maria, California USA
December 5, 2011 3:41 pm
Hello, I have enjoyed several days and nights watching this spider in her web and have even thrown a few bugs in the web to feed it. About 5 days ago it stopped making/repairing the web and has been in this same position day and night, is it dead? It looks like it is on top of a brown egg sac too. I don’t want to poke at it but was wondering if it is dead and if it is a garden spider?
Signature: Maggs
Dear Maggs,
This is an Orbweaver in the genus Araneus, and we believe it might be Araneus gemma which BugGuide describes as: “Female: carapace and abdomen vary in color from gray to brownish purple. The abdomen has anterior paired humps and may have a medial light stripe that varies in length. She does not look dead to us, and your theory that she may be protecting her egg sac is sound.
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