Tag: writing spider

Cherchez la femme

Male and female writing spiders (Argiope aurantia), in Portsmouth, Virginia. Please click photo for enlarged view.

We are overrun with writing spiders this year. I counted thirty at various growth stages in the garden this morning before abandoning the census. I usually overlook male spiders, seen at the top in this photo. They are small and indistinctly marked compared to the gaudy females, and easily missed.

A male writing spider typically builds a small web integrated into the larger structure of a female’s web, and quietly waits for her to reach her final instar and sexual maturity. Males are sometimes mistaken for meals if they move about too much and agitate the female’s web.

And males are usually Mysteriously Absent from the webs of gravid females. Having fulfilled their reproductive duties, they make excellent post-coital snacks to nourish the females’ developing eggs. 

Cherchez la femme

Male and female writing spiders (Argiope aurantia), in Portsmouth, Virginia. Please click photo for enlarged view.

We are overrun with writing spiders this year. I counted thirty at various growth stages in the garden this morning before abandoning the census. I usually overlook male spiders, seen at the top in this photo. They are small and indistinctly marked compared to the gaudy females, and easily missed.

A male writing spider typically builds a small web integrated into the larger structure of a female’s web, and quietly waits for her to reach her final instar and sexual maturity. Males are sometimes mistaken for meals if they move about too much and agitate the female’s web.

And males are usually Mysteriously Absent from the webs of gravid females. Having fulfilled their reproductive duties, they make excellent post-coital snacks to nourish the females’ developing eggs.