Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning
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 |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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.
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. C. Frank Starmer |