What's Up Hawaii?

   Aloha and Good Morning everyone in the Hawaiian Life community! Happy Labor Day to all that celebrate it. Can you believe it is already September already? We have had a crazy summer for hot temperatures all around. This past weekend, I experienced very nice 70 and 80 degree temps with low humidity. The best weather in probably six or more months, so I was in it a lot. While walking around I discovered an interesting spider. Come to find out it is quite common in the lower 48 states and including Hawaii. When trying to take its photo the spider got larger and that would be why I didn't recognize it.  Sending my own photo. Wish it was in focus more, because she definitely wasn't camera shy!!! ;-)

                         *The Black And Yellow Garden Spider: Argiope aurantia*

   Today is Labor Day! The federal holiday to pay tribute to the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well being of our country. The big majority of us though, myself included, usually marks Labor Day as the end of the summer, with either a get together or party, or at least a weekend of a last little outing before the kids go back to school, even though, more and more kids are now already back to school for the new school year. In my case, with over 4 months of high 90's and high humidity, I was outside enjoying nature and a weekend of beautiful weather. While I was out...

   I discovered the most amazing spider, I think I've ever seen, with my own eyes, anyway!  It must be rare, I thought. It had the most vibrant Black and Yellow colors and a really cool web. A sort of zig zags. It was at least an inch long & that was just the body, before the legs. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. So, I came inside and googled it and to my surprise it wasn't rare at all. It's a common garden spider, one that is even found in Hawaii. When I learned that, I couldn't get to this article fast enough. It is a spider with many names!  The species name is Argiope aurantia, the most common name is the Black amd Yellow Garden Spider, but it is also known as a Garden Orb-Weaver,  the Banana Spider and the Corn Spider and the coolest name, Writing Spider, because the zig zag web that he or she makes turns into an X whern it is finished.

   Anyway, if the young spiders survive the many predators like mud-dauber wasps, which we happen to have lots of,  or birds, once they mature the male is in search of a female. They wait around the edge of the females web sometimes building smaller webs of their own. Most info shows that they mate once. The female lays the eggs in sacs, near the center of the web where she watches over them and rests. Sadly the female will die before the young hatch, if there is a frost. She cannot survive that, but the sac will protect them from the cold winters. The male dies after mating and many times the female will eat the male...

   After hatching in the Spring, the spiderlings will emerge from the brown sac, one of up to four sacs that the female lays, which is the cocoon they lived in, anywhere from 500 to 1000 will hatch per sac. That is a LOT of spiders. Don't tell my son, because he has a phobia to spiders. He needs to take Arachnophobia 101, no, doubt that would help, poor kid. ;-)  In fact, I took photos of the spider I saw, but was hoping to get a better one, so I asked him if he would go outside and take a clearer shot and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. lol  I was really glad I took what I did because for some reason, the web and spider is gone this morning. There is a similar spider with a different web ...  ((Come to find out after reading more on this spider, the female eats her web every night and in the morning makes a new one)). Fascinating, but that sure is a lot of work... how fitting for Labor Day...

   The female body which is larger than the male, will grow to be 3/4 of an inch to 1 1/8 inches. The male will only reach 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. I deffinitely had a female and will send photo that I took. In both sexes the shiny egg shaped abdomen has a striking yellow or orange marking on a black background. The most common like I have is yellow. The front head area which is called the cephalothorax has short silvery hair. the legs are mostly black with red or yellow portions near the body. Like other orb weavers, they have three claws per foot, one more than most spiders. The third claw is used to handle the threads while spinning. The webs are very interesting with the zig zags. Some, when finished look like a doily and are definitely a work of art...

   She lifts her abdomen and emits several strands of silk from her spinnerets that merge into one thread. It takes a few hours to create the web. If disturbed she makes her body bigger. That would explain the size of her body last night. I've seen them before, but more long and thinner. When I wanted to take her photo, she tried to scare me off. I don't scare easily. lol  So, then she waits for her prey. It has a venomous bite that immobilizes it's prey, but is quite harmless to humans, because the amount of venom is so slight, that to a human, it is like a bee sting, nothing more... If the climate is warm, it is active day and night.  It is in the dark that they construct and repair their webs. They have poor vision and are quite sensitive to vibration and currents. They are very beneficial to gardens though. The sticky webs are what captures their food. They eat flying insects like aphids, flies, moths, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, wasps and bees. What a fascinating spider, and if I hadn't taken that walk.... who knows what you'd be reading right now. ;-) Here is my photo. It could be better, so I'll send a couple more links, one of YouTube to show them clearer.

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/black-yellow-garden-spider

   Well that is all from my creepy crawling new friend. I hope you enjoyed the article. I'm sending a couple of Mikes articles for you to read as well.  One of which is on surfing, something he loves!!! ;-) There is a YouTube video on this little spider that I'll send too. I'll also send a video from my friend @GregSlawson because now that September is here and the temperatures are starting to go down, Autumn is right around the corner and this video will remind you of that! Awesome what this man does...  I will also send one of the past interviews Mike did throught the Virtual Book Tour. Don't forget that we have plenty of merchandise at the Store Front here. There are also Tiki's calling you over at the Fan Page at Facebook...I'll send a link there too.  I hope you all have a safe and Happy Labor Day and a great week as well...

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Di @DianneLittle

Mike @HawaiianLife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hgQmglHRKM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmp4lbL3R0

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/my-new-site-help-market-my-new-book-pecu...

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/surfing-101

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/hawaiianlifefanpage

http://hawaiianlife.com/content/endemic-plant-species-hawaii

You can find Greg here:

http://www.gccreativestudio.com/videos/WaterFilms/

Today's Virtual Book Tour Stop with Mike:

http://margaret-paranormalromanceauthor.blogspot.com/2010/08/welcome-to-...

Until next time, Mahalo!

Aloha,

Di