Oval St. Andrew's Cross Spider

Description:

Argiope aemula (Walckenaer, 1841). I could not take a photo of this spider from a good position and the picture shown here was all that I could manage for this spotting. The spider had made its web deep in the rice field and I could not leave the turf dyke, I was standing on, to get closer. The Philippines is an important rice producing country and the rice fields are treated with great care. I could not go stomping through the crop, doing untold damage just for a better photo of a spider. However, the picture shows what I wanted to see - the web decoration. It looks like a Two-armed Discontinuous Cruciate Stabilimentum, but there is a little tuft of aciniform silk, just above the spider's left rear leg. I have to ask myself "Why is that there?" One possibility is that there was a third "arm" on the stabilimentum which has been destroyed during a struggle with prey, but there is no way of knowing for sure. So, this one can only, rather tentatively, be called a Two-armed web decoration.

Habitat:

Spotted in a rice field.

Notes:

I have no idea how many Project Noah members are interested in the web decorations of Argiope Spiders, but just in case there is someone out there who is wondering "What't the big deal with these Stabilimenta?" Well, I don't know too much about them yet, but I can say that it is a very big deal indeed. Arachnologists have been studying these web decorations for more than 100 years and a great many hypotheses have been suggested, but none has yet been universally accepted. As an amateur enthusiast, all I can do to contribute a little to these efforts is to keep taking pictures. Who knows, maybe one of my pictures will strike a chord with some expert who will say "That's what I have been looking for!" So, I have to keep on with the snapshots and the amateur decrriptions :-)