The average orb web is practically invisible, and it is easy to
blunder into one and end up covered with a sticky web. The very easily
visible pattern of banded silk made by Argiope
is pure white, and some species make an "X" form, or a zigzag type of
web (often with a hollow center). The spider then aligns one pair of its
legs with each of the four lines in the hollow "X," making a complete
"X" of white lines with a very eye-catching spider colored bright yellow
on a field of black or variegated red white and yellow stripes forming
its center. The white patterns are called stabilimentum and reflect UV light.
They have been shown to play a role in attracting prey to the web, and
possibly to prevent its destruction by large animals. Their centers of
their large webs are often just under 1 meter above the ground, so they
are too low for anything much larger than a rabbit to walk under. The
overtness of the spider and its web thus has been speculated to prevent
larger creatures from accidentally destroying the web and possibly
crushing the spider underfoot.

Other studies suggest that as the stabilimenta may actually lead predators to the spider, species such as A. keyserlingi place their web predominantly in closed, complex habitats such as among sedges. As Argiope
sit in the center of their web during the day, they have developed
several other responses to predators, such as dropping off the web,
retreating to the periphery of the web, or even rapidly pumping the web
in bursts of up to 30 seconds, similar to the motion done by the
unrelated Pholcus phalangioides.^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_%28spider%29#cite_note-blamires2007-0][1][/url]}