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Project Noah Nature School
Argiope sp.
A cross spider with unknown prey in its web. "The genus Argiope includes rather large and spectacular spiders that have often a strikingly coloured abdomen. These are well distributed throughout the world, and most countries in temperate or warmer climates have one or more species, which look similar. 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 centre). 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 coloured bright yellow on a field of black or variegated red white and yellow stripes forming its centre. 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. The centres of their large webs are often just under 1 metre 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."
Spotted on its web strung between vegetation along a transect in secondary coastal lowland mixed freshwater swamp forest/sago swamp forest.
Spotted on Jun 14, 2012
Submitted on Sep 19, 2012
2 Comments
Thanks. I wish I actually knew this information beforehand but I often search for it and just select interesting bits from a reference :-)
I love these type of orb weavers. You always have good scientific research information. I am starting to get better at that (hopefully).