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Signature Spider Egg Sacs
Argiope luzona
15.456, 119.922
Field Notes
Description:
Argiope luzona (Walckenaer, 1842). I have been observing the female Signature Spider shown here for some time now because the life style of this kind of spider is so interesting and presents numerous opportunities for picture-taking. I have already posted several spottings on Project Noah, showing prey insects being caught, wrapped and consumed. The web decorations which are renewed every night have included Four-arm Continuous (and Discontinuous) Cruciate Stabilimenta, of various arm lengths and even a rare Five-arm Discontinuous Cruciate version. However, the most important aspect of this spiders life must surely be how many baby spiders she produces to help ensure the continuity of the species. Until yesterday, she had produced a total of 3 egg sacs. The hatchlings from the first and second sacs have already emerged and I have been eagerly awaiting the hatching of the third batch. If you are interested, the first two batches were shown in https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1283859984... and https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1465365630... Please see Notes below for the photos in this spotting.
Habitat:
This female Signature Spider (Argiope luzona) has been living in our backyard for several weeks. Her web is moored mainly on a small banana plant, but some of the anchor points are on an adjacent Guava plant. The egg sacs which are the main subject of this spotting are all attached to the underside of leaves of the banana plant.
Notes:
Picrure #1. A new egg sac was spotted at 7:00 a.m. today, making a total of four. They are all in this first picture, the three on the left are fairly obvious and the one on the right looks rather small in the photo because it is attached quite far back on the banana leaf. Pics #2 & 3. Show the two empty sacs, from which the first two batches of hatchlings emerged some time ago. Pic #4. The third egg sac. The spiderlings inside must be close to emerging (I can't predict the date of hatching as the incubation period seems to be variable). Maybe temperature and humidity are factors, but I have been jotting down the dates of these events and when this spider's egg sac production comes to an end, I might be in a better postion to suggest an average incubation period (at least for my backyard spiders). Pic #5. The latest egg sac which was seen this morning. Pic #6. The female responsible for all of these egg sacs and many hundreds of babies. She still looks robust and full of life. So, I am optimistic about the possibility of more egg sacs and many more hatchlings.
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