Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning

The male weaving silk around the female cephalothorax. Left: attaching to the far side of her "head", Right: attaching to the 3rd leg on her near side.

For me the ending of the mating exercise was a downer. Here is a photo of the female - after mating and after having her mate for dinner. From the video I was able to extract the sequence of events that led to his demise - where he apparently dropped by a silk strand to escape the female but in the end, failed.

Here are the final moments extracted from the video - approximately 30 msec between frames

Insertion of palps into her epigynum and right - note the arching of her abdomen and pulling her legs toward her body

Escape while she continues to user her legs front legs to do something.

Escape (left) and attack (right)

On the right photo, you can see a small orange blob - this is the male dropping from his supposedly safe position by a strand of silk

Here she apparently is pulling this strand of escape silk toward her palps

Manipulating it

and bring him to her palps / jaws

The last gasp

The final solution - back to hunting

There was anohter Nephila web - but invaded by Argyrodes

Here is a view with the argyrodes (top - between the legs)

The orange stink bug (I think)

C. Frank Starmer

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