Wasp spider
The wasp spider has yellow, white and black stripes on its body, just like a wasp. But it is a harmless spider that waits in the middle of its round web. Its web has a thick zigzag line of silk in the centre.
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Fun facts
Nobody knows for sure what the zigzag in the web is for, but birds seem to fly into webs with a zigzag less often.
It builds its web at dawn or dusk, low down in long grass.
The male is tiny, only about 4.5 millimetres long, so he can sneak into the female's web without her noticing.
It can handle cold well, and it has been spreading further north in Europe.
Most asked questions about Wasp spider
?How big is a wasp spider?
A female's body is 1.4 to 2 centimetres long. The male is much smaller, about 4.5 millimetres.
?Why is there a zigzag in its web?
Scientists are not sure. One idea is that it helps birds see the web, so they do not fly through it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Argiope bruennichi
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Argiope bruennichi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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