Dome Spider

Description:

Araneidae; Cyrtophora; Cyrtophora cicatrosa Stoliczka, 1869. There has been a colony of Dome Spiders living on a Dwarf Sago Palm, in our front yard, for around two years. Their webs are three dimensional, rather than being on a single plain (like orb webs). The mass of silk strands which makes up one web is so dense that it is sometimes impossible to see the tiny spider living inside. Wikipedia explains that these webs are all connected together to form a colony. Sometimes, when I take a close look at the webs, I can't see any spiders, but this is probably just because they are so very small and the density of the silk makes it difficult. Today, I was lucky as I could see several spiders in the different sections of the colony and the two shown above were in positions where I could take photos.

Habitat:

These spiders were spotted in their colony of webs on a small Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta) locally called Oliba, in our front yard. Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Oliba.html