Meet the Orb Weaver Spiders!!

hey everyone ed and i are in california and we had an amazing opportunity to check out some orb weaver spiders however we were only able to film the b footage there because there were a lot of people around so we figured we would film elsewhere and share with you a bunch of cool facts about orb weavers so that you can learn about them too [Music] when you think of the word spiderweb what you probably are envisioning is the traditional spider web used in halloween decorations and it has that spiral in the middle those are the webs that are made by orb weavers and they're called orb weavers because the shape of their web is kind of a round or orb-like shape the way that these webs are made is that a spider will take non-sticky silk and create the base of the web which consists of a bunch of straight lines that all intersect in the middle then using sticky silk they create a spiral all the way down into the center of that web and the spiral is actually what insects will come into contact with and get stuck to so orb weavers unlike most spiders that only have two toes at the end of their legs or waivers have a bonus toe that helps them walk on the non-sticky parts of their web so that they don't get stuck orb weavers actually live all around the world and there are over 3 000 species of them worldwide with about 180 species living in the united states today we are going to focus on three genuses or groups of orb weavers the garden orb weavers the golden silk orb weavers and the spiny-backed orb weavers let's start with the yellow garden spider these are also called the black and yellow garden spiders or the zigzag or zipper spiders they all belong in the genus argyappy and they live in pretty much all of north america these are beautiful spiders with females reaching about two inches long they have beautiful contrasting black and yellow colorations males on the other hand only get about three quarters of an inch long and they're brown so females kind of get all the glory when it comes to the yellow garden spiders one of the most notable things about this species though is how they build their web and how unique their web is they usually construct a vertically oriented almost two foot long in diameter web and they have this zig-zaggy pattern that runs down the middle of it this zigzag is often why they're called the zigzag spider or the zipper spider and that zigzaggy design is called a stable momentum this is where the garden spider usually sits is directly in the middle of that stable momentum and there are currently three different theories as to what the stable momentum does initially scientists thought that as the name implied the stable momentum provided stability to their web however recently scientists have found that the stable momentum actually reflects uv light which has led them to a couple new theories as to what it does first we think that by reflecting uv light it might attract insects into the web and second by reflecting uv light that might deter birds from flying into the web and completely destroying it so similar to the uv reflecting stickers we often put on our windows to deter birds from flying into the window yellow garden spiders kind of make their own version of that right in the middle of their web a study in guam on a couple islands actually showed that where garden spiders and birds coexisted they created decent sized stable momentums in their webs but then thanks to the introduction of an invasive species the bird populations declined and so did the size of the stable momentum in garden spider's webs so that's kind of making scientists think that it's more used to deter birds than attract insects but if it does both at the same time it's a win-win although the black and yellow garden spider might look intimidating because it is a good size fighter they are completely harmless to humans and actually they're pretty docile too they don't want to bite they just want to catch bugs to eat and that makes them really good at pest control for gardens and that's actually why they're called the garden spider is because they're often found around gardens and they're great to have in gardens because they eat those pests that would otherwise eat your plants so instead of killing garden spiders just let them be to do their work next let's talk about a really impressive species of orb weaver the golden silk orb weaver right next to me here is a golden silk orb weaver they are a large species of spider and they get the name because their silk is a light yellow or golden color now we don't know why their silk is this color but interestingly enough their silk is one of the strongest silks of the orb weaver so maybe it has something to do with that these are also called banana spiders and they are a very pretty species of spider in my opinion and they live almost all over the world in warmer climates there's only one species though that lives in the united states and that is the trigonophylla clavipase as seen here this is a larger species than the yellow garden spider which we just saw earlier with females growing to up to three inches in diameter and male is growing to about an inch and they're brown so just like the yellow garden spiders the males aren't anything to brag about males are not only smaller and less pretty but they really drew the short stick overall because it's their job to find the females on their beautiful elaborate webs and if the female doesn't approve of the male instead of mating with him she'll just eat them females also construct larger webs than the yellow garden spider with theirs being as large as three feet in diameter and instead of having a vertically oriented web like the yellow garden spiders the golden silk orb weaver's web is typically constructed at more of an angle similar to yellow garden spiders the golden silk orb weaver is very docile it's harmless their venom is medically insignificant to humans and my favorite thing about the golden silk orb weaver is that they come with leggings since they live in typically warmer climates these fuzzy patches on their legs create more surface area for heat to dissipate from thus cooling down their bodies and the last group of orb weavers we're going to cover in today's video is these spiny backed orb weavers these belong in the genus gastrocantha and there's about 70 species worldwide at the moment that have been discovered this one is gastroecanthocantriformis which if you're a kid watching this video and you want to sound like a professional entomologist learn how to say the scientific name gastrocanthocantriformis and know that it's the spiny-backed orb weaver and you'll you'll sound like a genius to anyone you tell that to like that's an impressive scientific name and it took me a while to learn even this genus or group of spiders is very recognizable the spiny-backed orb weavers have spines on their back or on their abdomen and these six spines act as a line of defense for them to make them a little bit pokey if a predator were to try to eat them as you can probably see this is a much smaller species of orb weaver than the other two that we've been talking about this one shown here is a female and males are even smaller in addition their webs are smaller too their webs only are about 10 to 12 inches long i mean they're a smaller spider so they can't create as big of a web as some of the bigger species of orb weavers so there's a quick introduction to three genuses of orb weavers that you may not have known existed before or you didn't know what they were called i personally have seen a bunch of garden spiders growing up and they always intimidated me because i was not a huge fan of spiders until i became an adult and now that i know more about them i can't wait to find a wild garden spider because i just want to see it up close again anyway thank you everybody for watching there's a bug crawling on the lens right now so apologies if he shows up but thank you to our patreon backers as well for making trips like this possible so we can teach you about new species of animals that we've never been able to cover on this channel before and we'll see you next time those are the webs that are made by go away fly they belong in the genus argyop go away and second they think that by reflecting uv light they act yeah i'm not gonna stop that one maybe we can just ride it out and then start golden silk orb weaver these get their name from the color of god there's only one species though that lives in the united states and that is the trigonophyllic clavice what that's a mouthful yeah it is it is just wait till the next one where are you going now you're coming closer oh turn around u-turn just making rounds yep oh gotta repair this spot right here okay females also construct larger webs than the yellow garden spider with theirs being about three feet in with theirs uh with theirs growing to her they're harmless their venom is not so good would you quit distracting me quit picking leaves so there's a quick introduction to three genuses of orb weaver spiders gonna be okay yeah you almost fell there that would have been hilarious that you fell it went off i'm trying not to do that oh that makes sense [Music]

Channel: Snake Discovery

Views: 265,489

Keywords: spiders, orb weavers, spider facts, orb weaver spiders, spiny backed orb weaver, spiny spider, thorny spider, large spiders, gold silk spider, gold silk orb weaver, golden silk, garden spider, yellow spider, yellow black spider, huge spider, bugs, bug facts, arachnids

Id: 7XiMxK_LOwE

Length: 8min 53sec (533 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021