Black-and-White Spiny Spider

Description:

Gasteracantha kuhli is seen in our area throughout the year, but most often in the dry season. It is an orb-weaver and its webs tend to be quite large. It sometimes makes a web decoration which is usually in the form of a Linear "Trashline". As you can see, in my second photo, this one is busy building a decoration which has three Trashlines. This is my first time to see such a strange decoration.

Habitat:

This spider was spotted in our backyard. Its web was moored on the stems of two Banana Plants (Musa x paradisiaca) known in the Philippines as Saging, but in our local dialect, it is called Batag. This spider makes a very big web and some of its mooring strands were also attached to a Philippine Lime (Citrus x microcarpa), known by a number of common names in the Philippines, the most widely used is Kalamansi. Plant information from: http://www.stuartxchange.org/Saging.html...... and http://www.stuartxchange.org/Kalamansi.h...