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Project Noah Nature School
Argiope aurantia
The image is part of a display I put together on web building of local spiders. Hence the text.
Spotted on Jul 27, 2008
Submitted on Dec 24, 2011
2 Comments
Nice. With the structure-building spiders you can end up with pretty decent density if conditions are right because you don't get nearly so much intraguild predation when everyone stays put. There is a hedgerow near my mailbox at the end of my road that tends to build up a large population of argiope every summer. I get a chance to keep track of rough prey capture success because I can check up on them when I get my mail. They certainly tend to catch a lot where they are. There was an article in the Journal of Arachnology that just came out, though, regarding rare large prey capture and its disproportionate effect on spider fitness. It will be interesting watching them next summer with that idea in mind.
Cheers,
Dave
I had one of these in my meadow, rather about 4 or 5. But this good looking one so similar I named Boris, the spider. HA!