Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


October 31, 2014:Argiope aurantia building a web - day 2

I started early today - and for the first time - I found a stick insect not mating!!

oct 31 5163 unmated stick insect

My favorite US crab spider Mecaphesa celer

oct 31 5169 mecaphesa celer

My favorite US crab spider Mecaphesa celer

oct 31 5171 mecaphesa celer

Lizard sleeping with eyes open

oct 31 5196 lizard

A lighting mystery - black silk - clearly not reflecting

oct 31 5224 black silk

Weaving white silk

oct 31 5257 weaving white silk

Extruding multiple parallel strands of silk

oct 31 5259 extruding silk

Web weaving with single strands of silk

oct 31 5343 weaving

Web weaving with a single strand of silk - guided by her legs

oct 31 5347 weaving

Poorly focused male Argyrodes invading the Argiope aurantia web

oct 31 5368 male argyrodes

Male Argyrodes invading the Argiope aurantia web Note the glue globules on the web silk. Argyrodes seem to thrive on the silk and glue protein

oct 31 5375 male argyrodes

Complete Web of Argiope 1

oct 31 5389 argiope 1 web

Incomplete Web of Argiope 2

oct 31 5404 argiope aurania 2 web

Video of completing her web: Argiope aurantia 1

Ingesting old silk for recycling

Prep for ribbon extrusion - marking the web around the central core

Extruding parallel strands for making a ribbon of silk

oct 31 5485 extruding silk ribbon

Extruding silk ribbon - here you can see the individual strands as she extrudes them from her spinnerets

oct 31 5488 extruding silk ribbon

Video of ribbon painting lower stabilimentum

Slow motion painting

Painting the upper stabilimentum

Completed web of Argiope 2

oct 31 5497 argiope aurantia 1 completed web

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

-