Orchard OrbWeaver, Venusta OrbWeaver

About the size of a quarter (including legs). Young spiders build webs closer to the ground while older spiders build webs higher up. The female builds a web and lives on it. She lives on the underside of the web so that when you look at her from the top, you see her underside. The underside of her abdomen looks dark green with 2 orange spots and an orange, curved stripe. From a distance, it looks like a "Smilie" face. We had one who built quite a large web (approx. 3 feet). My wife named her "Pumpkin" because she reminded us of a jack-o-lantern. They are very motivated about maintaining their webs and quickly reconstruct them when damaged. I had one at the base of a tree and while I was spraying a poison ivy plant, I accidentally destroyed her web (about 2' across) with the sprayer wand. ... read moreThe next morning, the 2' web was back in place, completely reconstructed and she was sitting in the middle showing her "smile". They feed on insects that are lower to the ground. They seem to prefer to live near the base of trees and shrubs and collect crawling and low flying insects. Shy; not aggressive. They are very shy spiders and will drop off their webs and run for cover at any threat. I haven't heard of any reported bites on humans.

A very beautiful small spider. Iridescent back in sunlight.