Saturday, August 8, 2015

A few argiopes

Argiope aurantia
Alas, many of the black-and-yellow garden spiders (Argiope aurantia) that we spotted in our Wildscape earlier this summer have disappeared. But I did find a couple, including a less common banded argiope (Argiope trifasciata). These two looked to be about the same age and size, but the marking are DEFINITELY different. Cool, eh?
Argiope trifasciata

3 comments:

Ragna said...

Neat! I've seen a couple of smaller ones, but didn't know there was a similar but slimmer variety. I just thought they were perhaps male A. aurantias so didn't go close enough to check them out.

This is certainly been the year for Argiopes, for me anyway. I've counted about 14. Sometimes a certain one I've spotted will disappear then reappear in the same spot a couple of weeks later. I have yet to find an egg case, but my friend Patty has seen several.

TexasDeb said...

Very cool! I don't think I've seen a trifasciata (that I was aware of) before, but I'm sure going to keep a lookout. We saw a lot of argiope spiders earlier this year that seemed to have melted away into the undergrowth, but recently we've begun to see them again. I'll be on the lookout.

Ragna said...

Opps, I misunderstood Patty, She was telling me that she sees the egg sacs in protected places like around buildings and under eaves, not that she had seen them already this season. It seems they lay eggs later in the year.

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