Gold Wasp Spider
| Gold Wasp Spider | ||||||||||||
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female gold wasp spider |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Argiope aurantia | ||||||||||||
| Lucas , 1833 |
The gold wasp spider ( Argiope aurantia ) is a spider from the family of the real orb web spiders (Araneidae). The etymology of the name means " gilded silver face ". Like the other species of the genus Argiope, golden wasp spiders give their prey poison, but this is classified as harmless to humans.
description
The males reach a body length of 5 to 9 mm, the females a body length of 19 to 28 mm. The females can reach a leg span of up to 7 cm.
The opisthosoma (abdomen) of the females has a black to black-brown basic color with distinctive markings. The sides are marked by irregularly large and whitish to yellowish colored spots. In the center of the opisthosoma there are four, mostly whitish yellow spots. The prosoma (foreleg) is predominantly light gray to white and is densely covered with silvery hairs. The males are inconspicuous, light brown, with indistinct, dark markings.
The eyes are arranged as is typical for real orb web spiders, there are eight in total.
distribution and habitat
The species is common in the United States , Hawaii , southern Canada , Mexico, and Central America .
The golden wasp spider occurs in various habitats, such as swamp areas, savannas, open prairies, light forests and their edges, as well as in the vicinity of humans on agricultural areas and in villages and towns. It needs enough bushes and shrubs to stretch its nets and to hunt. It is mainly found on the plains, less often at high altitudes. High mountains are not populated.
Network construction
Gold wasp spiders often build their webs in areas next to open, sunny meadows, where they are hidden and protected from the wind. Nets are also often found along rain gutters or in high vegetation, where they can safely spin the nets. The circular part of a female's net can reach a diameter of up to 60 cm. The nets are built at a height of about 20–70 cm above the ground.
The nets consist of a dense zigzag made of silk ( stabiliment ) in the middle. The purpose of this stabilization is disputed. It is possible that it serves as a camouflage for the spider lurking in the middle, but it could also attract insects as prey or warn birds of the otherwise barely visible nets. Spiders that are only active during the day build their webs with Stabiliment.
To build the net, several threads are stretched in a radial pattern between four or five anchor points that can be more than 90 cm apart. These threads meet at a central point. Then she spins a frame from further radial threads and then fills the middle with a spiral made of spider silk , leaving an 8–9.5 mm gap between the individual spiral rings. It starts with the innermost ring and then spins outwards clockwise. To ensure that the web is taut, the spider slightly bends the ray-shaped threads together while creating the silk spiral.
The nets of the females are much larger than those of the males, who build smaller zigzag nets nearby. The spider occupies the center of the web and usually, hanging upside down, waits for prey to get caught in the web. The nets usually stay in the same place throughout the summer, but at the beginning of the season they change their location more often, possibly for better protection or better hunting conditions. Female animals are considered to be very faithful to their location, they often stay in the same place their entire life.
The golden wasp spider can swing its web very strongly while sitting in the middle. This makes them appear larger and can deter predators such as wasps and birds from approaching and also completely entangling trapped insects before they can break free.
In a nightly ritual, the spider eats the circular inner part of the web and rebuilds it every morning with fresh spider silk. The frame and the radial anchor lines are usually not replaced when the spider renews the web. The spider can potentially recycle the chemicals used to build its web . In addition, the threads that it eats contain small remnants of prey insects and other organic matter that also serves as food.
The gold wasp spider does not live in close groups like other silk spiders, e.g. the golden silk spider . She always keeps her web neat and tidy compared to the confusing array of nets built by golden silk spiders.
Reproduction
Gold wasp spiders breed once a year. The males roam the area in search of a female, build small nets near or even in the female's net, and then woo the female by plucking her net. When the male approaches the female, it often has a security thread ready in case it is attacked by the female.
The males have two identical sexual organs that they introduce into the female one after the other. Mating is so strenuous for the male that it dies immediately afterwards and is often eaten by the female. When the male dies, the swollen male sexual organ remains stuck in the female's body for another 15 to 25 minutes. This prevents the female from mating again with another male and gives the dead male's sperm sufficient time to fertilize the female's eggs.
In many spider species it can be observed that the males die of exhaustion after mating or they are eaten by the female. However, the type of gold wasp spider is so far the only species in which this targeted death has been observed.
After mating, it lays its eggs at night on a piece of silky material, covers them with another layer of spider silk, and spins a protective brownish silk around it. Then she uses her legs to form a ball with the neck turned upwards. The cocoon with the eggs is 1.5 to 2.5 cm in diameter.
The cocoon is often placed directly on the web, near the center where the spider spends most of its time. Each spider produces one to four cocoons with up to over a thousand eggs in each. It protects the eggs from predators for as long as it can. However, when it gets colder, it weakens and usually dies with the first frost.
Web links
Argiope aurantia in the World Spider Catalog
- Animal Diversity Web: Argiope Aurantia (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Argiope aurantia. In: animaldiversity.org. Retrieved June 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Hans-Eckhard Gruner, Hans-Joachim Hannemann and Gerhard Hartwich, Urania Tierreich, 7 vols., Invertebrates, Urania, Freiburg, 1994 ISBN 3332005022
- ↑ a b Spiders.us: Spider Species Identification Guides - Argiope aurantia. Retrieved January 20, 2013
- ↑ Guide: Black and Yellow Argiope. ( Memento of January 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved June 2, 2019
- ↑ a b M. E. Herberstein, CL Craig, JA Coddington and MA Elgar: The functional significance of silk decorations of orb-web spiders: a critical review of the empirical evidence . 200, Biological Reviews 75: pp. 649-669.
- ↑ Spiders - An Electronic Field Guide: Argiope aurantia. Retrieved January 20, 2013
- ↑ Kerstin Viering: Spider men sacrifice themselves for their offspring - death comes during sex. In: Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved January 19, 2013
- ↑ a b Matthias Foellmer and Daphne Fairbairn: Spontaneous male death during copulation in at orb-weaving spider. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, online edition NJCC, 2003. 270: pp. 183-185.
- ↑ Texas Master Gardening: Argiope Aurantia. Retrieved January 20, 2013