spiders
Posted by Angela Williby on September 27, 2005
Q: Can you help me with telling me what kind of spider I happened to come upon at my home in Southern WV?
State: West Virginia
A: There are lots of different spiders so making an ID without a picture is difficult. The one you described, is definitely not one of the 2 that are dangerous so you needn't worry about your safety. From what I can learn from your description, I'd guess you have a Garden Spider (Argiope). These are really beautiful spiders, they get quite large (female is much larger than male) and their web catches rather large insects. If you have one or more of these in your garden or yard, it will help reduce the number of insects around. Take a look at this site and see if this spider isn't similar. www.fcps.k12.va.us
>
Thanks for asking and I hope this helps.
John Wiessinger ( September 27, 2005)