Fat Spider, Skinny Spider

Spiders are such cool creatures. And the Orbweavers with their sticky webs can give you a face full if not watching. LOL.

Nothing to do with a spider, a Spotted Phosphila (Phosphila miselioides) caterpillar on Greenbriar! This was the first one I have found this summer. They are such beauties!
Here the stabilimentum for this Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) was kinda of a combo, a zig zag and circular. Stabilimentum was a new word for me. I thought it would be related to stabilizing the web. However Stark (2002) dismissed “hypothesis has since been dismissed because it was found that the decoration is only loosely attached to the web so that the actual influence on the stability could only be minor.” So there could be multiple reasons for the decoration. To mention a couple of reasons in Stark’s paper included: warn birds of the web, help with capture of prey, or thermoregulation.
Another reason for a stabilimentum given for the Garden Spider was age. The juvies make the stabilimentum rounder.
My heavens was this Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) ever fat!

So I wondered if she was full of eggs.
From every angle she was BIG!

So the next day she was gone. All that remained was the web. I had hope she was off making a cocoon for her eggs. However I was not able to find a cocoon.

Indeed skinny now. This was the next day after she had gone missing. Of course I can’t be sure it was the same spider. But why else would she be back on the same web if not her own?

The Garden Spider goes by many common names. Some are Black and Yellow Spider, Yellow Garden Spider, Writing Spider, and Zipper Spider. And the last but first name I knew was the Banana Spider.

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

8 Comments

  1. Guess that spider had to find what she thought was s good place for her eggs. Sure is a pretty one. Love the sounds in the earth.

  2. Greatness word – stabilimentum – cool that they come in many forms.
    Hope you have lots of baby spiders running around some day!

  3. We have a LOT of Argiopes this year. And lots of egg sacs. I watch their size to know when they have laid their eggs. Yours is about the biggest I have seen though. Our closest one is right in line with the window at our table and we have watched hummingbirds come up to inspect the spider multiple times a day. Quite entertaining! We keep wondering if it is the same curious hummer or different ones.
    Yep sometimes I find the egg sac and sometimes I don’t. They seem to be tired the day after laying and hide out for a bit before returning to the web. We had another close view at our cabin, right out front besides our gate so we got to watch a lot of that one’s life cycle. She ate some monster grasshoppers.
    I grew up calling them zig zag spiders.

  4. The one I told you about in the window did a weird thing this morning. Something must have disturbed it because it started bouncing the web such that the spider was hitting the window with a thump over and over and over. Later she was gone but I found her on the deck step railing. I decided it was time for her to find new digs. She had been in the persimmon tree so I herded her that direction. I guess tonight she will spin a new web, not one across our walkway, I hope. I have to clean my window now. Appears she pooped on it, or something since there is a white run down the glass.
    We also got to watch the 2 young foxes this morning. They are so pretty.

    1. That is strange but probably not to her. Perhaps she was testing the web strength? Or not😂 I hope she takes your hint and moves to a newlocation. 🤞🏼

  5. I think she must have been touched by one of the curious hummingbirds to make her move like that, as a threatening gesture. Today a hummingbird actually went up to her (new location under the Post Oak about 10 ft away) and looked like she touched the spider with her bill. It did get a reaction out of the spider. I don’t know if the hummers are seeing the yellow color and think it is a flower or what?

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