Bug Encyclopedia
Search and identify bugs & insects — beetles, butterflies, moths, ants, bees, spiders and more — with size, habitat, danger, behavior, and how to tell them apart.
Spiny Orb Weaver
A small, hard-shelled orb weaver shaped like a tiny crab, with six sharp spines projecting from a brightly colored abdomen suspended in a neat wheel-shaped web.
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Marbled Orbweaver
A round-bodied orb weaver with a swollen, marbled orange-and-purple abdomen that builds large, symmetrical webs in damp woodland edges.
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Cross Orbweaver
Named for the pale cross of dots marking its rounded abdomen, the cross orbweaver spins one of the most classic wheel-shaped webs, rebuilding it fresh nearly every night to keep its silk sticky and effective.
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Orb Weaver Spider
A stout-bodied spider best known for spinning the classic, near-perfect circular "orb" web strung between plants, eaves, or fences, often rebuilt fresh each night.
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Garden Orb Weaver Spider
The classic maker of the round, wheel-shaped web, the garden orb weaver hangs head-down at the center of its silken snare. Many sport a cross-like pattern of pale spots on a rounded abdomen.
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Long-jawed Orb Weaver
A slender, stick-like spider with oversized jaws that stretches its legs flat along a stem or spins a loose orb web low over water.
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Golden Silk Orb Weaver
Suspended in a massive, glinting web strung between trees along a forest trail, the golden silk orb weaver is one of the largest and most striking web-building spiders in the Americas, spinning silk with a distinctive yellow-gold sheen.
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Golden Silk Orb-Weaver Spider
Famous for spinning enormous webs of shimmering golden silk, the golden silk orb-weaver is a large, long-legged spider of warm climates. Females dwarf the tiny males and hang head-down in their sprawling snares.
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Cave Spider
A long-legged orb weaver adapted to the twilight zone of caves, spinning large webs across cavern mouths and dangling its egg sacs from silk threads deep within the darkness.
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Bird-dropping Spider
A lumpy, white-and-brown orb-weaver that spends its days motionless on a leaf, looking uncannily like a fresh splash of bird droppings.
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Jorō Spider
A large, strikingly colored East Asian orb weaver with yellow-and-blue-gray banding, now spreading rapidly across the southeastern United States and building enormous golden webs.
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Banded Garden Spider
A large orb weaver with a silvery, banded abdomen striped in yellow and black, spinning a distinctive zigzag stabilimentum through the center of its web.
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Garden Spider
A large, strikingly patterned orb weaver with a black-and-yellow abdomen and a bold zigzag band of silk woven into the center of its web, making it one of the most recognizable garden spiders.
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Barn Spider
A brownish, mottled orb weaver famous as the inspiration for Charlotte's Web, commonly found spinning large nightly webs on barns, porches, and other structures.
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Banana Spider
"Banana spider" is a folk name applied inconsistently across the Americas, but in the southeastern United States it most often refers to the large, golden-silked orb weaver commonly seen spanning gaps between trees along shaded trails.
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