My eight-year-old son, Sean, and I were thrilled to see the beautiful picture taken by Glenn Sides of a local spider in the Sept. 10 issue. We had recently been studying the very same spider that has spun a lovely web on the deck outside of our kitchen.

We check on her daily to see what she has found to eat and to see what she has added to the web. Since she is such an unusually decorated and rather large spider, we decided to look her up in our insect field guide.

We thought The Pilot readers might want to know that she is actually not a garden spider but a black and yellow Argiope spider. Unlike the garden spider, which spins a symmetrical orb with five or six sides, the Argiope weaves a unique web with a spiraling vertical orb radiating out from the center.

Mr. Sides captured the beauty of this web in his picture. If you happen upon one of these spiders, please leave her undisturbed, as she eats all kinds of pesky insects. She is probably not long for this world because once she prepares her egg sac and attaches it to one side of her web, she dies. Not to worry, all the spiderlings will spend the winter in the sac and disperse again in spring to delight us once again.

Mary Anne and Sean Richard

Carthage