star-crossed spiders

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Argiope aurantia. Photos by Lynne Davis

After seeing wildflower devotees Lynne and Bob Davis at the nature center yesterday, I was reminded of the photos Lynne had recently sent me of writing spiders, a.k.a. garden spiders (Argiope aurantia). The photos capture the much smaller, more tentative male moving in to be near her.

"Found these 'lovers' outside the office at Eagleville Gliderport. Looks like the male is taking no chances - he's on the other side of the web," emailed Lynne.

"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek!" sighed Shakespeare's Romeo.

But she's a Capulet! Will she eat me?

To borrow loosely from the Bard of Avon, calling the pair star-crossed lovers is fairly accurate. They do not have a fortuitous future together as Wiki succinctly states.

“Yellow garden spiders breed twice a year. The males roam in search of a female, building a small web near or actually in the female’s web, then court the females by plucking strands on her web. Often, when the male approaches the female, he has a safety drop line ready, in case she attacks him. The male uses the palpal bulbs on his pedipalps to transfer sperm to the female. After inserting the second palpal bulb, the male dies, and is sometimes then eaten by the female.”

There's a country song in this somewhere but George Jones is no longer with us to sing it.


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