Orange garden spiders. The colors of garden spiders range from orange to green. The orange-colored garden spiders are a variety of species.
The marbled orb weaver, Araneus marmoreus, is the most popular orange spider. Because of its bloated abdomen and vivid yellow color, the species is also known as a pumpkin spider.
Let’s take a look at the various orange spiders that may be found in your house, garden, or while walking through a park or woodland (including black and orange spiders).
Orange Spider — Evolution and History
During the Devonian period, spiders began their evolutionary journey about 400 million years ago. Before the first dinosaurs arrived, this was more than 150 million years ago.
Before landing on land fully, scientists believe that the first arachnids lived in a semi-aquatic environment. current spiders’ forebears were not slender-waisted, as are current spiders.
Abdominal segmentations, which are no longer seen in today’s spiders, were also present.
Around 380 million years ago, the first spiders with spinnerets evolved. Instead of being located at the end of their abdomen, members of the Mesothelae group (the oldest group of spiders) had their silk-producing organs in the center.
The spiders of the Paleozoic Era lived on the forest floor and were mostly ground-dwelling. Cockroaches, millipedes, and silverfish were among the arthropods they ate.
Silk was first produced by primitive spiders, but it was used primarily to cover their eggs and line their tunnels. They eventually learned how to create trapdoors for catching prey, which they did.
One of the most remarkable adjustments spiders made was the use of two-dimensional and three-dimensional webs.
According to scientists, as plant and insect life diversified, this adaptation evolved.
Over 250 million years ago, spiders gained the ability to construct more complicated sheet-like webs for catching prey on the ground and in trees thanks to their evolution of spinnerets at the end of their body.
Flying insects became more common throughout the Jurassic Period (about 191 to 136 million years ago).
The ability to create sophisticated aerial webs for catching these insects was developed by orb-weaving spiders like the orange spider.
The horizontally oriented 3D web builders, such as the tent-web spiders, or the 2D web builders, such as the orange spider, are not known which came first.
Marbled orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus)
The Araneidae family includes the marbled orb weaver. With 3,108 species in 186 genera worldwide, this is the third largest spider family.
The circular wheel-shaped webs these spiders create in wooded areas, fields, and gardens are a characteristic of this family.
Behavior
The orange garden spider’s web is shaped like a wheel, belonging to a group of spiders known as orb weavers.
Supporting lines serve as the foundation for these webs. Silk threads, which extend from the center of the web, look like the spokes of a wheel and are attached to the supporting lines.
In addition, within their webs, orange garden spiders create zigzag patterns. In order to signal the spider of captured prey, these threads vibrate.
Orange garden spiders secrete a substance that prevents them from bonding to their own silk, despite the fact that their webs are sticky in nature.
The orange garden spider’s long, velvety legs make it easy for the arachnid to seize its victims and bring them back.
Description
This species is divided into two types. The orange abdomen of the nominate variety is marbled with black or brown.
With a solitary dark mark towards the rear of the abdomen, pyramidatus is considerably lighter and sometimes nearly white. Within the species’ range, the nominate variety may be found.
The two types of pyramidatus are uncommonly found together in Europe. This pattern may be seen in the Northern part of the United States and into Canada, although the pyramidatus form is uncommon in North America.
The female is up to 18 mm long, whereas the male is only 9 mm long.
Female marbled orbweavers have very large oval, sub-spherical abdomens and are 9 to 20 millimeters long. Orange with brown to black patterns is the most frequent color morph.
The abdomens of this species, on the other hand, may be white, black/brown, or red in hue.
Egg cocoons, which are made of white silk and formed into a flattened sphere, are usually placed in October and contain hundreds of eggs. In the spring, young spiders emerge from their cocoons.
From mid-summer till the first hard freeze of autumn, adults may be seen.
With a central dark line and dark lines down each side, the cephalothorax is usually yellow to burnt-orange.
The tibia, metatarsus, and tarsus are usually black and white striped beginning with the femurs.
A light brown banded pattern on the legs is also possible. A black band is encircled by white brackets on the venter.
Scientific name: Araneus marmoreus.
Marbled orbweaver, pumpkin spider, and orange garden spider are all popular names for this species.
The abdomen of the marbled orb Weaver has a distinctive marbled pattern. This spider has an appealing orange head and upper legs, as well as black and white stripes on the lower legs.
The orange and yellow abdomen of some marbled orb weavers is black and orange, respectively.
They’re found in wooded regions, near water, creating circular webs. Females prefer to stay in their dens, which are bigger than those of males.
On the retreat, where she will protect them, the female lays orange eggs that are fastened in a silk sac. They are not aggressive towards humans, despite the fact that they may reach a massive size.
Webs
The webs are commonly located along the banks of streams and are oriented vertically, with a “signal” thread attached to the center that notifies the spider when prey has been captured.
They may be found in trees, shrubs, and tall weeds as well as grasses in wet woodland settings.
Araneus marmoreus hides in a silken retreat at the end of the signal thread, unlike Argiope garden spiders, which hide on the web’s other side. Leaves may be folded over and held together with silk, silk exclusively, or other leaves and debris.
What Does the Orange Spider Eat?
The majority of Araneus marmoreus eats insects. They consume insects that they capture in their webbing nets.
Orange spiders are skilled at producing exquisite webs out of silky and non-silky threads that encircle prey as securely as possible, therefore they are known as orb-weaving spiders. When a prey is hooked, the web vibrates.
The spider is alerted to attack and immobilize its victim with venom as a result of this.
Woodlouse Spider (Dysdera crocata)
The woodlouse spider has an extended oval body, long legs, and huge mouthparts. It is an orange and brown spider. The cephalothorax of a spider is tawny orange to dark red in color, with a lustrous sheen.
The oval abdomen, on the other hand, is yellowish-brown or black in color.
The orange woodlouse spiders are 0.43 to 0.6 inches (11 to 15 mm) long. The spider’s cuisine, which primarily consists of woodlice and pillbugs, gives it its name. Sowbug killer, pillbug hunter, and slater spider are all names for this insect.
The glossy orange cephalothorax and legs, as well as the brownish-gray oval shape of the woodlouse spider, help to identify it.
Cardinal Jumper (Phidippus cardinalis)
With a fuzzy orange cephalothorax and abdomen, the cardinal jumper is a tiny orange and black hairy spider.
Hairy body, jet black legs, bright orange coloring, and two prominent central eyes are all identifying features of the cardinal jumper spider. This spider is just 0.4 inches (10 mm) long.
The wasp-mimicking spider known as the small black and orange cardinal jumper spider. Mutillid wasps, sometimes known as velvet ants, are imitated by cardinal jumper spiders.
These spiders, on the other hand, don’t sting. Unlike wasps. The spiders’ ant-like habits and vivid orange hue, which helps to scares off predators like birds and other spiders, have also made them well-known.
The cardinal leaping spider is a fuzzy orange and black spider with black, spiky legs and four eyes, the two central ones being the most noticeable.
European Garden Spider
Before they begin eating, orange spiders inject digestive fluids into the insects to soften them up. This method allows them to capture up to 14 insects in a single day.
Beetles, wasps, moths, and mosquitoes are among the insects that make up this spider’s diet.
Scientific name: Araneus diadematus.
European garden spider, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider, crowned orb weaver, pumpkin spider are some of the common names for this species.
The orange cross spider, also known as the pumpkin spider, is another name for the European garden spider. The spider has been brought to North America from Europe.
The males are smaller, with a body length of roughly 13mm, while the females reach 20 mm in body length. They have a pale yellow/brown hue, with some specimens having an orange hue.
The abdomen has mottled white patterns and is divided into four or more sections that make a cross.
The segmented white stripe and patterns that make up a cross are what give this cross orb-weaver its name.
The crowned orb-weaver, diadem spider, orangie, and European garden spider are some of the other common names for this non-venomous spider. This spider is also known as the pumpkin spider, similar to the marbled orb-weaver.
Reproduction:
From late summer through fall, the adults are visible. Females abandon their webs in late September and deposit between 300 and 900 eggs in secure spots.
A cocoon of yellow, silken threads is shaped in a hemisphere and surrounds the eggs. Under the bark of dead trees, in cracks and crevices, and elsewhere are common egg deposition places. (Penn State Entomology)
In the United States, it was brought in from Western and Northern Europe.
From New England through the Southeast through California and the Northwestern United States and adjacent areas of Canada, the cross spider may be found throughout North America.
Gardens, meadows, woodland clearings, and hedgerows are just a few of the habitats where the cross spider may be found.
It’s usually seen near structures with outdoor illumination. In rural areas, spiders may be found in the lighted stairwells of buildings.
Diet: flying insects, such as, flies and mosquitoes.
The cross spider creates a 40-centimeter-diameter orbweb – which it uses to snare insect prey – that is structurally complex.
Large females construct the webs. Three pairs of spinnerets secrete silk, which is used to make the web, at the end of the abdomen.
They’re usually found waiting for prey to fly by and get trapped in the sticky web, with their heads down on the web.
Prior to being consumed, the victim is swiftly grabbed by the female and wrapped in silk (see photo below).
Each night, along with many of the tiny insects glued to it, Orb Spiders are said to consume their webs. Within a few minutes, they were seen devouring the web. In the morning, a new web is spun.
Brown Widow
Scientific name: Latrodectus geometricus.
Brown widow, brown button spider, grey widow, brown black widow, house button spider, and geometric button spider are some of the common names for this species.
The brown widow, also known as the brown button spider, has black and white stripes on the sides and a yellow to orange hourglass on its belly. South America is thought to be where they first arose.
In tropical regions of the United States, such as Hawaii, they are often seen near buildings.
They aren’t as dangerous as the black widow, but their venom is neurotoxic. The bite region and the nearby tissues are the only ones that get bitten.
Triangular Spider (Arkys lancearius)
The heart-shaped abdomen of the triangular spider is orange with white dots. The body of this unusual spider is pale orange or light red, with white dots on its three-sided abdomen.
The center is surrounded by pairs of bigger white dots. The spider is 0.31″ (8 mm) in size and has a tiny orange triangle on its back.
The spider’s other distinguishing characteristic is its two pairs of enormous, stretched-out forelegs, in addition to its unusual abdomen in the form of a triangle.
The four lighter-colored, shorter, pale orange hindlegs contrast with these.
The triangle spider has a distinctive heart-shaped abdomen that is translucent pale orange to reddish-orange in color with many white markings.