Argiope australis

Picture ID 98144

Submitted by:
kimurgor
Submitted: Jan 9, 2020
Photographed: Jan 9, 2020
Spider: Argiope australis
Sex:
Male, Female,
Maturity:
Adult
Location: Lodwar , Kenya
Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
Found in web?: Yes
Attributes: Dorsal, Webs

9 Comments

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kimurgor

Photo Owner

January 9, 2020 9:58 am

Found this spider on a school fence, please help identify it.

ItsyBitsy

Moderator

Reply to kimurgor

January 9, 2020 2:31 pm

Hi, this looks like Argiope australis. The big spider is the female, the little one above her is a mature male. Nice shot. 🙂

kimurgor

Photo Owner

Reply to ItsyBitsy

January 10, 2020 5:36 am

Thanks, the small one looks like it is a youngone because they were three on the web. Will post another picture from a different angle that captures two small ones

ItsyBitsy

Moderator

Reply to kimurgor

January 10, 2020 9:52 am

Sounds like a bunch of males vying for the female. The small appendages near the spider’s mouth are enlarged, this is how I know it is a mature male. On mature female and immature spiders of both genders these appendages (pedipalps) are narrow. This is an example of sexual dimorphism (female being many times the size of the mature male which is common in this family of spiders). Edit: Pedipalps are reproductive organs on male spiders. Edit#2: In addition the female already looks gravid.

kimurgor

Photo Owner

Reply to ItsyBitsy

January 10, 2020 10:17 am

Thank you so much, I get it now

TangledWeb

Moderator

Reply to ItsyBitsy

January 10, 2020 2:19 pm

Do you know why are your edits visible and no one else’s are? We can erase what we wrote in the forum or change it for a limited time after posting it without any visible evidence. As you know, it doesn’t work with original submissions. I like how Bugguide let’s a user preview a posting to edit it before final posting. So, female spiders don’t have pedipalps at all?

ItsyBitsy

Moderator

Reply to TangledWeb

January 10, 2020 2:33 pm

I wrote it out that way, I typed out “Edit” for clarity in case he caught the original draft. I posted then immediately remembered more info I wanted to add. Twice. I said females have slender pedipalps.

ItsyBitsy

Moderator

Reply to ItsyBitsy

January 10, 2020 2:56 pm

Of course there’s a couple exceptions to the rule (took me a moment to remember the name), in North America at least there are two genera where the female doesn’t have pedipalps. Gertschanpis shantzi and species in Anapistula.