Yellow garden spider (Argiope appensa)

Yellow garden spider (Argiope appensa) is a species of spider in Araneidae that lives on the coast to forests on islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Black and yellow females are striking and have a length of 5.1-6.4 cm including long legs, while males are brown and have a length of about 1.9 cm.

A. appensa lives on cliffs in the hills at 600 m above sea level in Kewu plain to rice fields in the lowlands. They make nests at a height of 1.5 meters from the ground between Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia), sonosiso (Dalbergia sissoo), teak (Tectona grandis), crown flower (Calotropis gigantea) and various grasses.



Yellow garden spiders grow in large sizes, but are not toxic to humans. Advanced builds ball-shaped nets and most of them make stabilizers which are zigzag-shaped lines in nets made of thicker bands.

This species spends more time in stationary and sits in the middle of the net with its head down to wait for insects to be entangled in fine silk thread. Unlike other spider species that prefer solitary life, This animal can live proudly with their colleagues.

TAXON

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Superfamily: Araneoidea
Family: Araneidae
Subfamily: Argiopinae
Genus: Argiope Audouin (1826)
Species: Argiope appensa Walckenaer (1842)

SYNONYMS

Argiope chrysorrhoea L. Koch (1871)
Argiope crenulata Doleschall (1857)
Argiope schoenigi Marapao (1965)
Coganargiope reticulata Kishida (1936)
Epeira appensa Walckenaer (1841)
Epeira crenulata Doleschall (1857)

VERNACULAR NAME

Chinese (simplified): 附金蛛
English: Yellow garden spider, Banana spider, Hawaiian garden spider
Guam: Banana Spider
Indonesia: Laba-laba pisang
Italian: Ragno vespa delle banane
Java: Kemonggo gedang

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