Yikes! What’s that?! It’s a spider Sarah spotted at camp a few weeks ago, and odds are it’s a female Writing Spider (Arigiope aurantia). It’s actually a very common spider in North America, and is also known as the “Black and Yellow Garden Spider” or (even cooler!) the “Golden Orb Weaver.” It’s famous for the intricate web patterns it weaves, the web it “writes” with X marks along the strands.
There’s lots to learn about these amazing spiders. Here’s a nice article (with photos) describing the Biogeography of the Writing Spider.
For young children to having a chance to marvel at creatures like this is one of the wonderful parts of nature camps like Rockbrook. You never know what cool critter you’ll find.
Oh, and don’t worry! The writing spider is not considered poisonous to people (even though it looks like it would be!).
[…] they aren’t even spiders! They do have eight legs and are in the same biological class as spiders, but are in a different order. It’s just a big misconception that seems to be repeated every […]