$Argiope riparia.$--This and the next species are among the largest and most conspicuous of the round-web spiders. It lives among grass and low bushes in open fields and meadows, especially along the borders of ponds and ditches. It matures in the northern states about the first of August. Large females are nearly an inch long, with the front legs longer than the body (fig. 449). The cephalothorax is nearly as wide as long and covered with silvery white hairs, except around the eyes. The front legs are entirely black, and the others are black, except the femora, which are light red or yellow. The abdomen is oval, a little pointed behind and square in front, with two small humps at the corners. There is a black stripe in the middle of the abdomen, narrowed between the humps and widened in the middle, where it includes two pairs of yellow spots. Along the sides are two bright yellow bands or rows of irregular spots. The color underneath is black, with a yellow stripe on the sternum and two wide yellow stripes on the abdomen, with small yellow spots between and at the sides. The young differ considerably from the adults. Until nearly full grown the legs are distinctly marked with dark rings on the ends and middle of each joint. When very young the abdomen is slender, the color is pale, and the markings gray, without the strong black and yellow of the adult. The male (fig. 450) is only a fourth as long as the female, similarly colored, but with the markings less distinct and the palpi very large. In the middle of the summer they live near the webs of the females, where they make small and imperfect webs of their own (fig. 452). The females make webs, sometimes two feet in diameter, with a zigzag band (fig. 448) of white silk up and down across the middle, and a round thick spot where the spider stands. The inner spiral of these webs is very large, covering a quarter of their diameter (fig. 452). The outer spiral comes very near it, but the spider sometimes passes through the narrow space between them from one side of the web to the other. The web is usually a little inclined, and on one or both sides sometimes has a screen of irregular threads two or three inches distant from it (fig. 453), but these are often absent. These spiders have no nest and stand all the time in the center of the web (fig. 448). Sometimes the spider draws away the grass and leaves so as to make an oval opening large enough for the web (fig. 453). In September the eggs are laid in large pear-shaped cocoons with a brown paper-like surface, hung by threads among the grass and bushes (fig. 454). The young hatch during the winter and remain in the cocoon until May. The adult spiders disappear in October and probably all die before winter. [Illustration: FIG. 453. Web of Argiope riparia in an oval opening among plants from which the leaves have been drawn away by the spider. At the left of the web is a screen of irregular threads.]