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FAMILY ARANEIDAE
- This page contains pictures and information about Banded Orb-weaving Spiders that we
found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Leg to leg female 50mm, male 10mm
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- Banded Orb-weaving Spiders sometimes may be confused with St Andrew's Cross Spiders. They look similar although
the pattern on their abdomen are quite different. Banded Orb-weaving Spider
females have yellow, white and brown colours bands across their abdomen. Their
legs are also banded. Males are much smaller than the female, with grey to
pale brown in colour.
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  - Female
Male
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- Banded Orb-weaving Spiders are not as common as the St Andrew's Cross
Spiders. We only found one or two of them in our backyard each year. Banded Orb-weaving Spiders
build vertical orb web, about a meter in diameter, close to ground among tall grasses.
They make stabilimentum
on their web too, but not a cross. They also rest on web with legs in
pair.
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- From late summer to early winter, females build egg sacs near their web
and are suspended among the leaves.
Male Approaching Female
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Grasshopper flied into Spider web
- One hot summer day, we were taking pictures of a grasshopper,
the grasshopper jumped and flied away. However, it flied into the web of a Banded Orb-weaving
Spider. The web was built wide across the grass land, half a meter above
ground. We did not see the web neither until the grasshopper got caught in the
web.
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- The spider came near the grasshopper immediately and poured large amount
of silks onto the grasshopper. After the grasshopper was entangled by those
silks, its movement was limited, then the spider hold the grasshopper with
eight legs, rotated the grasshopper like a wheel with the spider itself
hanging from the wheel, while putting more silks onto the grasshopper.
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- The spider quickly warped around the grasshopper and the grasshopper just
no way to escape. The process happened in a few seconds and we took the above
pictures.
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- Then the spider came rest and sit back at the centre of the web.
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- Reference:
- 1. Argiope
trifasciata - The
Find-a-spider Guide for Australian Spiders, University of Southern
Queensland, 2007.
- 2. Spiders
of Australia: An Introduction to Their Classification, Biology &
Distribution - Hawkeswood T, Pensoft Pub, 2003, p116.
- 3. Australian Spiders in colour - Ramon Mascord, Reed Books Pty
Ltd, 1970, p74.
- Back to top.
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