St Andrews Cross Spider

St. Andrew's cross spider is an orb-web spider, commonly found in gardens, forests and heath lands in eastern Australia. The female has brightly... more

by Maryse Jansen

Title

St Andrews Cross Spider

Artist

Maryse Jansen

Medium

Photograph

Description

St. Andrew's cross spider is an orb-web spider, commonly found in gardens, forests and heath lands in eastern Australia. The female has brightly coloured abdomen with silver, yellow, red and black stripes and spots and banded legs. She grows up to 16mm in body length. The males are a lot smaller (up to 4mm) and have a brown and cream colour. Like with some other spiders, the mating procedure is tricky for the males, they might lose a leg if they’re lucky or otherwise their life! The spiders rest with their legs oriented in pairs. They create a remarkable stabilimentum (web decoration) in the form of a cross. Scientists have been puzzled about the function of this decoration. The latest idea is that, because the silk reflects UV-light strongly, it helps attracts prey. Flying insects use UV-lights to find food sources like flowers. It could also be that it deters predators such as wasps and birds to fly into the web.

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St Andrew’s Cross Spider, Arigope keyserlingi, spider, animal, wildlife, Queensland, Australia, web, green, striped, arachnids, orb-web spider, Araneidae, nature

Uploaded

March 30th, 2021