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Orb-weaver Spider
Argiope lobata
42.641, 18.109
Field Notes
Description:
The female of this species (photographed) is large, spectacular and scary looking. About 2,5 cm in body length with each leg of the same length or more. Pale in color on dorsal side, while the ventral side is marked with black and yellow spots. The abdomen carries deep furrows and distinctive lobes around the edge. I had a chance to observe her during few days, but did not see the male around - male is much smaller (5mm in body length) and discreet.
Habitat:
This species thrives and was observed in garrigue, soft-leaved scrub-land of Mediterranean - in this occasion our own garden in Dubrovnik. This female suspended her net in stems of lone lavender in our garden, and me and all family kids were able to observe her and her predatory activities during few days - until the children games drew her away...
Notes:
During few days that this female was openly cohabiting with us, we noticed that she was a remarkable predator - every day there were new cocooned corpses of bees and even some smaller butterflies lying under her net. It also came out that she was active both during the day- and night-time.
Moreover, during these few days, I had a number of photo sessions with my model - but got the very good photos from the first two - morning and evening the same day.
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