Handsome argiope spiders hard to miss this time of year

This time of year, when big black and yellow argiope spiders begin showing up in gardens across Hampton Roads, you begin calling and e-mailing.

This is the spiders' time of year. They make their presence know up front and bold. The pretty, bright-colored females are hard to miss in their handsome web with a zigzag stitch down the center.

Black and yellow argiopes are often called sewing machine spiders because of their web's distinctive stitching. Also, because of the web's location, usually among late summer flowers, they are often called simply "a garden spider."

Over the summer, the females grow bigger, plumper and more noticeable as their bellies swell with eggs. In late summer, they leave the middle of their web and head for a nearby secure place to lay their egg sack.

To protect it, they spin a paper-like covering that looks exactly like a miniature brown paper bag tied at the top. The sack is secured to a hard surface like the side of the house or a window ledge.

The female goes on to die, but her babies hatch out and winter over in the cozy sack. In spring, they emerge and start the garden spider life cycle anew. By this time of year, the females have grown big enough, well over an inch long, to become very obvious - and that's why we feel like we are seeing them everywhere.

I found the plump spider in this photograph in a web that was strung between my neighbor's wall and one of my blueberry bushes. My young neighbor, Clarke Johnson, later found it, too, and came running to tell me about our friend.

John Martinolich in Courthouse Estates sent a photo of a female actually making its web. Martinolich wondered what he was seeing. Across the street, Katherine Taylor found one in her yard for the first time and said it was "scary."

Though garden spiders are big and formidable looking, there's no need to fear them. They are not poisonous to humans, though their bite can be lethal to small insects! When the spiders are frightened, they drop to the ground, away from any threat.

On the other hand, those of you who know them from other summers feel like you are welcoming back the children and grandchildren of year's past. Take Olivia Borgerding, of Salem Lakes, who sent an e-mail about her sighting and how glad she was that the harsh winter did not have any effect on her spiders.

"Our first argiope spiders have appeared by our compost bin, two females," Borgerding wrote. "I did not see any males hiding on the edge of the webs, but let's hope some are about. The egg sac from last year is still visible!"

Borgerding mentioned the male spiders - and that brings us to the dark side of the females, otherwise known as the garden queens.

The male is tiny, perhaps a 1/4-inch long. He builds a similar, but tiny, web with a zigzag stitch, in the outlying edges of a female's web. At the opportune time, he moves in to mate. In thanks, she then kills him, wraps him in silk and eats him for dinner!

Robert Brown, an inveterate insect photographer and garden spider admirer, managed to photograph the entire process and then, in commiseration, also write an ode to the hapless male. My new blog - found online at hamptonroads.com/maryreidbarrow - is the place to see his great photos and poem.

Links on My Blog: Amine Taylor wrote to say there was a fascinating article on goldfinches in the National Wildlife Federation magazine. Tim Solanic sent a link to a great video of a spider eating a lightning bug in a thunderstorm. Find them both at hamptonroads.com/maryreidbarrow.

 Hummingbird Moth Janice Rhoades said she had seen a hummingbird moth feeding on her butterfly bush in Ashville Park. Hummingbird moths are day-flying moths that look and behave like miniature hummingbirds.

 Giant Hornet! Jessica Stahbock was alarmed to see what she thought was a giant hornet, "a very large flying insect with the markings of a yellow jacket or hornet." She thinks it could be been an Asian giant hornet that may be making its way into the area.

Photo Ops Tom Brewster photographed an osprey eating a fish on a pine tree branch in his Thalia yard.

•  William Grant in Great Bridge sent a slide show of goldfinches feeding on zinnia seeds.
•  Alice Mullen in Birdneck Lake photographed a beautiful Luna moth on her porch.
• In response to the pink praying mantis item in last week's column, Jan Eaton sent a sweet photo of a very small, young, pale brown praying mantis on a spent bloom in her Lake Smith yard. Entomologist Peter Schultz, director of the Virginia Tech Agriculture Research and Extension Center on Diamond Springs Road, said the pink mantis was probably a mutant.
• Michelle Gaggiotti photographed a yellow-billed cuckoo that came to the rescue of caterpillar-infested willow oak trees in Newcastle. You don't see these big birds with a down-curved yellow bill much unless there's an outbreak of tree-dwelling caterpillars that they love to eat.
• Jamie Ehlers sent an unusual photograph of a tiny baby catfish, trapped in a water droplet on a lotus leaf in the lotus pond off Sandbridge Road
• Vicki Lowe in Courthouse Estates managed to capture a photo of a sphinx moth flying toward a flower with its long proboscis curled out. These moths often look like little hummingbirds when they are feeding at night.
• Curtis Fruit sent a photo of a handsome young red-tailed hawk perched on his deck in Red Mill.
• And Gary Pashang sent a photo of himself holding a dead 4-foot, 6-inch long canebrake rattlesnake in Pungo that he and his daughter met up with near a barn. "I would have not killed the snake except the dogs and cats were trying to catch it," Pashang said.
• Warren Cooke in Chesapeake's Hickory area sent photos from a motion sensor camera in the woods behind his home. Though there are photos of foxes, deer, rabbits, raccoons and more, Cooke says he rarely sees or hears anything himself.