Garden Spider

[Mirta]

  He never showed me his belly, so Mirta couldn't give me a specific ID.   

Well, as that is a sp. that doesn´t live here, what i really nedd to see if I can IDher, is a dorsal picture. Janet´s are showing her ventral side and Lou´s ones don´t show the whole dorsal design  I´m very curious to see which of the northamerican Argiopes she was.

 

Mirta

[valhalla]

Next time we get one of these big guys,  I'll know to capture both sides of him.    Live and Learn 

[Judi]

It's too bad the Wikipedia pages don't include any info on who or what predators they have.  I'm sure there are a lot of them, including many birds, reptiles and mammals (opossums come to mind).

Any info on that aspect, Mirta?   

Spiders have a lot of predators: several mammals (from monkeys, bats, carnivores, insectivores to opossums), birds, frogs and toads, reptiles, other spiders, scorpions, other arachnids, insects (mantis, a lot of wasps, asassin bugs, etc), several parasites can kill them (fungus, bacterias, wasps, protozoans). And you must remember that most of the spides have short lifes, less than 1 year is common.

 

Mirta

Thanks, Mirta!  I haven't brushed up on my arachnid info in a long time, but need to as we're building a new reptile/amphibian/invertebrate center at the zoo (the name of it is the HISS Center) which will have a whole section devoted entirely to spiders, or so I've been told.  Our Spider City exhibit, although temporary, was a HUGE hit and they want a permanent exhibit. 

Judi   

[Mirta]

That will be great  to see.
Let m know when it opens, so I´ll add your city in my list of places to visit....
Mirta  

Thanks, Mirta!  I haven't brushed up on my arachnid info in a long time, but need to as we're building a new reptile/amphibian/invertebrate center at the zoo (the name of it is the HISS Center) which will have a whole section devoted entirely to spiders, or so I've been told.  Our Spider City exhibit, although temporary, was a HUGE hit and they want a permanent exhibit.  

Judi  

[Judi]

That will be great  to see.
Let m know when it opens, so I´ll add your city in my list of places to visit....
Mirta  

I will definitely do that!  We're told it should be finished and open mid-2010.  When you decide to visit you need to let me know so I can make plans to have our Curator of Reptiles available when I give you a grand tour (because you know I'll want to do that!)!