Name: Natalia and Vadim (with Vasili and Vladimir watching)
Species: Golden Silk Spider (Banana or Calico) Spider
Nephila clavipes
Kingdom:Metazoa (multicellular animals)
Phylum:Arthopoda (arthropods)
Class:
Arachnida (spiders, harvestmen, scorpions, mites)
Order:
Araneae (spiders)
Family:Tetragnathidae (long jawed orbweavers)
Genus: Nephila
Range: Southeastern United States, Central America, Northern
South America
Color: Yellow, Orange and Brown (female); Dark Brown (male)
Size: 24 mm to 40 mm in length (female)
Commonly Found During: Late Summer to Early Fall
Prey: Small to Medium-Sized Flying Insects (flies, bees, wasps, moths)
Defense Mechanism: Bite (non-poisonous; will only bite if provoked)
Reference: Florida Nature
Links:
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| Love at First Bite, Natalia and Vadim (click
images for large view) |
Its been raining in Charleston all summer long. John found
a cluster of webs in his back yard. Natalia, an orb weaving spider,
(nephila clavipes or banana spider or golden silk spider or calico spider)
and her boyfriends had set up housekeeping in his bamboo patch.
Ever since Natasha from last year, I was
anxious to see males. Sandy provided my first exposure
to males, but it was hot and her guys were rather lazy.
So the first
sunny day, I went over about 6pm and discovered that there was very little light
for making photos and I wanted to avoid flash. Nevertheless,
I made a few photos and learned how to make
long (1 sec) exposures (with tripod).
Further observations would require midday sun, so I waited
until the next sunny day (a Saturday) and went over about noon. I found
Natalia and her 3 boy friends. Note that you can really see the golden
color of the silk in her web (click over the image for a larger presentation).
During a 2 hour visit, she caught 2 bees
and there was some action with 2 of her three boy friends (Vadim and Vasili).
At first I thought that she was sharing her meal of bees with them, but
when I looked closely at the photos, I found they never made it to the
bees. Rather they were coupled to her abdomen - engaged in some sort
of procreational activity.
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| Catching a bee for dinner |
A bee flew into the web, and immediately Natalia dropped from her launching
position, grabbed the bee and started to immobilize it with her silk. She then
climbed back into her launching position and immediately started to enjoy
dinner. Not far away was Vadim, looking carefully and finally decided he
would make a move. But what kind of move? A move for dinner or a move
for sex. I could not tell.
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| The call of love and/or death |
I took photos galore, not really knowing what was happening. Vadim did
an interesting sort of dance - approaching Natalia from above, moving close
and then backing away. Finally he crawled down over her abdomen and wrapped
his legs around her (all the time, Natalia was apparently enjoying dinner).
After some time, Vadim made his way back to his launching position - above and
to the left of Natalia. While taking the photos, I thought he was enjoying
dinner with Natalia - nice setup: she catches a nice juicy bee and shares it
with her boyfriend. Well, when I saw the pictures on the computer display,
it became quite clear that he was not anywhere near dinner - but stopped short.
A google search on nephila mating produced several references and suggested
that Vadim placed himself in her reproductive area. Apparently
the male, an often times dinner treat for a female, finds love making
safest when his mate is busy eating a freshly caught
bee or mosquito or other flying tasty delight. Anyway, there are some
interesting studies of mating and behavior among spiders, and particularly
golden silk spiders.
Here are some useful manuscripts, describing different types
of mating behavior and its link to cannibalism.
For more photos, visit their pictures .
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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