Hello, can someone ID this guy? He comes out every so often at the same tree at night and builds a new web every time I see him. The web is huge, guessing at 3-4 feet by 2 feet. I really like this spider!

Noone even wants to guess?

For local and native true spiders, I usually point people to bugguide.net. I have seen this species all over the USA, but can not recall the genus even.

Christian

This spiders drive to build a new web every night that is so large and tear it down before the sun comes up is amazing to me. Now if I could figure out where he disappears to when the sun comes up.....

I would guess Neoscona crucifera, a very widespread species, pretty much coast to coast. Taking down the web during the day is pretty common among many orbweavers (they actually eat it!), typically they will hide in a curled leaf or a crevice during the day.

Wade

Strange. I wonder why they would eat it. I assume most spiders dont eat their own web. Either way, I made sure that one had a meal

I suspect that taking down the web is a defense against day-active predators, specifically birds and mud daubers and other spider wasps. Without the web, the wasps have a harder time finding the spider. They eat it to recycle the protien.