Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning

About 5 metres above the ground I found a huge golden silk spider web (Nephila maculata) and if you look closely, you will see a little reddish spider on the right side of her face. This is most likely a male Nephila in search of the solution to the mating game. The following photos simply show him as he moves about

For orientation - here is her web where you can get some idea of the size - relative to the size of the leaves

Here he is on top of her thorax

Here you can see him crawling under her (which is in the right direction to solve the mating game)

Here he is - back on top

walking back

then to one side

then back to the front

and climbing over her face

Here you can barely see his legs on the right side of her abdomen

Now he is nearing the mating position

Slowly creaping up to the proper position

Oops - something just flew into the web so SHE dashes off to get her snake while HE hangs on

She returns to the center of the web - but he is now sufficiently disoriented as to return to her dorsal side and think about the situation

Hmmm - seems mating was complete, in spite of the interruption - so off he leaves - with his life still intact

Moving further away (female typically eat their partners after mating

moving around a bit

then getting some serious distance between him and her

Now he is probably a safe distance away

C. Frank Starmer

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