1999 33c Insects & Spiders: Yellow Garden Spider

Spiders don’t bother me too much, but my husband hates to find them in our house. It is my job to kill it if he finds one. His job is take care of any other insect that is found in our house. When I found out that the first week of April celebrates spiders, I wondered if I could find a postage stamp with a spider on it.

The Yellow Garden Spider (#3351d) is so famous that it was even featured on a United States postage stamp! In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service released a special collection called the Insects & Spiders series. This set included twenty different colorful stamps, and the Yellow Garden Spider was one of the stars. The 33-cent stamp showed a beautiful illustration of the spider sitting on its web, helping people across the country appreciate its unique look. It was a great way to show that even tiny creatures are important enough to be honored on our mail.

While they are often grouped together, spiders are actually very different from insects. Insects belong to a group that has six legs and three main body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. Spiders, however,

are arachnids. They have eight legs and only two main body sections, called the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Another big difference is that almost all insects have antennae and many have wings, but spiders never have either. Instead of chewing their food like many insects do, spiders use their fangs to help them eat a liquid diet

The Yellow Garden Spider is a large, colorful spider often found in backyards and fields. You can easily spot them because of their bright yellow and black patterns. They are famous for building huge, circular webs that have a zigzag shape made of thick silk right in the middle. This zigzag is called a stabilimentum. Scientists think it might help birds see the web so they don't fly through it, or it might help hide the spider from predators.

Even though they look a bit scary because of their size, these spiders are like free pest control for your garden. They spend their days catching insects that humans usually don't like, such as flies, mosquitoes, and grasshoppers. By eating these bugs, spiders help keep your garden plants healthy and stop pesky insects from coming inside your house. They are generally shy and would much rather stay on their webs than bother a human.

Because they do so much work for us, we should try our best to leave them alone. In fact, many people celebrate Be Kind to Spiders Week during the first week of April! It is a great time to learn why we shouldn't kill them. Instead of squishing a spider, you can use a cup and a piece of paper to gently move it outside. Keeping spiders around helps the environment stay balanced and keeps the "bad bugs" away.

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References:
Cover from the author’s collection
National Wildlife Federation: Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)
Smithsonian Institution: Common Garden Spiders
National Day Calendar: Be Kind to Spiders Week (First Full Week of April)
United States Postal Service: 1999 Insects and Spiders Commemorative Series
American Museum of Natural History: Spiders vs. Insects