Comments & ID Thoughts
It is only about an inch long and i think it is an orb weaver
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Apr 25, 2018
- Photographed: Apr 24, 2018
- Spider: Leucauge festiva (Masked Vlei Spider)
- Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes: Dorsal
Hi, welcome to Spider ID. 🙂 What a gorgeous spider! New to me but I may have found it already, it looks like ones I’m seeing IDed as Leucauge festiva. There are a few others in the genus I want to double check before making the page for it.
I researched this spider and found that is a Basilica Orb Weaver….. or otherwise a Mecynogea lemniscata.
The Basilica Orb-weaver, aka Mecynogea lemniscata ranges from USA to Argentina. There are no species of Mecynogea known from South Africa.
https://wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/351
Compare instead to Leucauge festiva: https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/9085962?size=large
It is an adult female