I took Raven out for her regular walk this afternoon. I took my camera with me even though it was overcast and threatening to rain, since you never know what you might come across. Thank goodness I did, or I would’ve missed documenting this wild spider. It was walking across the road, and both its size and colour made it exceptionally eye-catching on the bare surface. It was huge. Its abdomen was about the size of my thumbnail. I have no idea why it was crawling across the road, but I couldn’t resist pausing to run off a series of photos.
Such a distinctive spider was pretty easy to ID. I already knew it was an orb weaver because of the giant abdomen, and shortened third legs. A search for “orange orb weaver” on BugGuide.net turned up a bunch of photos, including several of my critter. It’s a Marbled Orbweaver, Araneus marmoreus, a fairly common spider of woodland clearings and long-grassed meadows. It’s been recorded in all of the Canadian provinces, with the majority in the more open southern Ontario and prairie provinces. There aren’t many records from the US on that page (it is CanadianArachnology.org, after all), but BugGuide.net shows records for most of the eastern states. Worldwide, it’s a holarctic species, found in Eurasia as well.
Its abdomen is intricately patterned, almost looking like bubbles, but the thing that I thought was particularly neat is that the pattern is asymmetrical, especially right at the front. There’s actually two morphs of this species, this one (which can also come in yellowish versions with dark markings), and one whose abdomen is mostly pale with a large dark blotch at the back. The latter form is only found in Eurasia, and rarely overlaps in range with the orange version. How they know they’re the same species is a mystery of science. The large size makes this a female. Females can reach 14mm (body size minus the legs) while males are much smaller, reaching just 9mm. Being a member of the Araneus it ought to show a longitudinal crease down the abdomen (as opposed to Neoscona, which has horizontal creases), but if there were any creases at all, they weren’t visibly obvious to me.
I always learn something here. Terrific photos!
ok i have a pic of a spider a friend of mine sent to me that i dont know what it is because its kinda far away to tell real details, plz email me at you_cant_make_this_butterfly_cry@yahoo.com if you think you can help.
Thanks.
Lena
oh n this was to anyone not jus ruth btw.
It’s gorgeous! I can see why you stopped to take pictures.
Wow, that is an amazing spider. The orange is quite vivid. I’ll keep my eye out for it.
Great photos … and even better eye to spot it!
I wish we had found this one, it is lovely. As spiders go.
What a beautiful spider! Great color and patterns. We had a few orb weavers around the house as late as last week. They were yellow and black striped and quite large having feasted all summer on the abundant grasshoppers that lived in the high grasses. It’s turning winter cold now, here in Wisconsin. I imagine the spiders that over winter have found shelter to see them through till spring.
I’ve never seen one like that – wow! Thanks for the spider lesson and the reminder to carry my camera. :)
We just found one outside. We are in SW Missouri. I thought he had got into paint. The kids think he is so cool. Has he been found in this part before? I have never seen one before and I have lived here my entire 42 years.
Just found my first orange orb-weaver the other day on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Given it’s strikingly bright colors, I first thought it was nature’s way of saying it was venemous. Put it in a can and ‘Google’d’ it. I put it right back outside to continue it’s journey shortly thereafter. Beautiful pics!
I really like how you go through your reasoning as you find the species of the spider. I am trying to find the species of a similar spider that is white with red stripes and your description makes me think that it is an orb weaver…now I just have to find a picture of the same one somewhere!
Thank you,
Heidi
I found one of the orange orb weaver spiders crawling down the outside of my Wausau, WI. house and had no clue what it was and i am freaked out really bad by spiders but i just had to look at it! it was increadable!!
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I found one on my door frame in Portland Oregon this evening. To my suprise it doesn’t move very fast. It’s abdomen is the size of a small grape. YIKES!
I’m glad to hear someone else from the Pacific Northwest has found one of these too, since I wasn’t sure if I was correctly identifying it. I came home today to find one on the ceiling about the door to my apartment complex. I’ve never seen a spider with an abdomen that big! Scary!
I was reroofing a house and My wife found one on a piece of plywood next to my saw horses . so we captured it and it was taken to iowa state university to be researched because it not common in central iowa. weird
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i caught one
i just found the same exact spider in a pile of leaves in the woods. its truely an amazing spider and really big
Thank you for showing me the marbled orb weaver. I was cleaning my window ledges ouside and came across one. I had no idea what kind it was till I found your site. I carefully released him into the woods behind my home. I live in eastern ontario.
My husband and I found one of these amazing spiders in some leeks that were delivered to our shop this week. This is in leicestershire, England, and the leeks were from a local supplier so imagine the spider is from the uk, so quite interested to see that there were no other messages from the uk. It was a fascinating spider though, never seen anything like it before.
Thank you! I found the same Spider in my back yard in Waterville, Ohio,(near toledo) and was wondering what kind of spider it was as i have lived here all 32 years of my life. I have a great picture of it and would like to share only don’t know how. I also didn’t know if this spider was poison species or not. now that i have the name i’m able to look it up thanks alot for your help!
Thank you for the insight and the anatomy of the third leg. My students and I found orange and brown one. It looks like it has flourescent orange spray paint on its abdomen. : ) We found it at our school forest in Mosinee, WI. It keeps playing dead.
We found an Orange Orb weaver today, in a pile of leaves in Mason City,IL..So bright, you couldn’t miss it.