Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


May 12, 2007: Nephila and Argyrodes

It rained last night, but the sunrise was spectacular.

may 12 1063 morning

I was somewhat skeptical that there would be any Nephila, Argyrodes or Argiope. Each morning when I walk to my spider place, I pass this interesting arrangment of hanging things. On Saturday's guys come and hang their song birds - a sort of local community center for song birds

may 12 8423 song birds

A perfect father-son morning

may 12 8425 bird boy

Placing a bird cage

may 12 8426 birds

Then I pass the food court - later I'll stop for lunch and a lime juice

may 12 8428 morning food court

So off I went, about 9am - and stopped at my Argiope web. No Argiope - sigh and I was about to walk away when I looked up a bit and there she was, a beautiful female Nephila

may 12 1070 nephila

and her breakfast, nicely wrapped in her silk

may 12 1073 nephila prey

and my setup

may 12 1181 nephila setup

There was a small fly on my camera - nice practice shot

may 12 1090 d200 fly

Here she is placing her breakfast into the eating position. In addition, there are a few Argyrodes our kleptoparasites, looking for something yummy. So I set up and watched and took 2 GB of photos.

may 12 1086 nephila argyrodes

And mom eating away at her breakfast

may 12 1112 nephila eating

Closer

may 12 1129 eating

Later, she finished her breakfast. You can see a lonely Argyrodes to the right. This provides another example of size scale

may 12 1102 nephila argyrodes close

I decided to walk around a bit - and found another Nephila pilipes. The leg color, though, is orange - with a black body - and for me, quite unusual

may 12 1164 nephila

Orange colored legs - color morph of Nephila pilipes. I've not seen this morph before. Here I'm looking up because the web is quite high

may 12 1179 nephila

Her web was about 4 metre above the ground

may 12 1165 nephila 4 metre

Looking into the sky

may 12 1173 nephila sky

Then back to my first find

may 12 1136 nephila web

From the side

may 12 1138 nephila web side

Here are a pair of Argyrodes

may 12 1139 argyrodes

And a single Argyrodes doing what they like to do

may 12 1156 argyrodes

Just taking a walk

may 12 1159 argyrodes

More walking

may 12 1160 argyrodes

Harvvesting

may 12 8441 argyrodes harvesting

Here you can see the female palpi

may 12 8459 argyrodes palp

As she grasps a strand of web

may 12 8460 argyrodes position

And positions it

may 12 8461 argyrodes position

Here she appears to be eating something

may 12 8489 argyrodes eating

Here, she appears to be chasing an insect that is stuck in the Nephila web

may 12 8498 chasing insect

Here I thought she was stealing it

may 12 8499 agrodes stealing

And here, preparing to eat it

may 12 8499 catch insect

But she kept moving beyond

may 12 8504 insect later

Another insect caught in the web

may 12 8505 caught

may 12 8522 size scale

may 12 8524 size scale

may 12 8668 argyrodes

Here she is playing with a fly

may 12 8693 catch fly

and releases it

may 12 8697 release fly

then later grabs it again

may 12 8702 catch fly again

and manipulates it

may 12 8719 manipulate prey

Here she is at her acrobatic best

may 12 8804 argyrodes acrobat

And a reflection of the sky

may 12 8870 reflection

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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