A capture from yesterday, in Daruty Forest where I was taking a walk. I nearly marched straight into the web, the light and glare through the trees was playing some kind of wicked trickery with my vision.
At first, I thought these two spiders were having a bit of a skirmish; there seemed to be a fair amount of chasing and leg-flailing going on.
But, upon reading about these spiders, I think that maybe the smaller one is a male and the bigger one a female.
So - perhaps they are having some sort of spidery pre-nuptial face-off ritual; then will make up and get down to the business of making offspring.
I'm not quite sure which species it is - there are two possible subtypes, both of which look very similar. However, because of the mentioned geographical zones, I'm inclined to think the first link is more relevant.
@boxplayer
I have never back-tracked so fast in my life - although they are non-poisonous, I still didn't fancy having those two creep and crawl over me.
And also, I would've been mortified to damage the web.
@marlboromaam
Apparently so. According to the literature, the male is vastly smaller than the female. And I didn't see any major killing instinct in the squabble; it was more like a sort of ritual, so I think their spat was maybe a kind of mating dance between an eeny weeny teeny tiny male and a huge gigantic ginormous female. If you zoom in, you'll see the small one has the same colouring on the legs as Big Mamma does. I’m almost sure this is male and female.
Luckily for him, she doesn't gobble him up or chow his head off after he's helped make her babies. Some ungrateful wenches out there!
Super interesting this is a great read…
You’ve captured the spiders & Webb sooo well, amazing to see how big & small they are… well done for your bravery
I have never back-tracked so fast in my life - although they are non-poisonous, I still didn't fancy having those two creep and crawl over me.
And also, I would've been mortified to damage the web.
Apparently so. According to the literature, the male is vastly smaller than the female. And I didn't see any major killing instinct in the squabble; it was more like a sort of ritual, so I think their spat was maybe a kind of mating dance between an eeny weeny teeny tiny male and a huge gigantic ginormous female. If you zoom in, you'll see the small one has the same colouring on the legs as Big Mamma does. I’m almost sure this is male and female.
Luckily for him, she doesn't gobble him up or chow his head off after he's helped make her babies. Some ungrateful wenches out there!
Thank you, Issi 🥂
Thank you very much
You’ve captured the spiders & Webb sooo well, amazing to see how big & small they are… well done for your bravery