Argiope argentata
Most people looking at this page must have seen one of these before. They are pretty common garden spiders everywhere.
The name Argiope argentata means silvery silver face. I guess whoever described it first was really impressed by the silvery coating on their cephalothorax.
The Argiope spiders are very particular about their webs. They make an impecable circular web, which they clean and repair methodically, and they also like to add a little extra decoration.
Different types of Argiope like to do different things to their webs. This species likes to make a four big lines, and then align their legs with the lines when they sit in the middle, in all it’s glory. The queen of the garden. Quite extravagant.
The researchers don’t quite know why spiders make these thick silky drawings on their webs (called stabilimentum), but they know that it must be important, since it evolved independently at least nine times in the natural world. Some think that its function is defense, to camouflage the spider, or make the spider look larger.
They also think that by making the web more visible, it might be easier for birds to see the web and to avoid it. I like this theory, because after spending years observing how finicky they are with their webs, and how much energy they spend making it perfect every day, I imagine they must get really pissed when a bird comes flying and ruins it.
Other theory says that they do that to attract insects. The stabilimentum reflects ultraviolet light, and we know that insects really can’t resist that kind of show. It’s possible.
One day, I’m getting one of these on a t-shirt :p
Argiope argentata by The Bug Lady, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: arachnid, Argiope, Arthropod, entomology, Photographs, silver, St. Andrews Cross Spider
