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Female garden spider, with a little bit of interesting info!
Firstly, I confess to copying a Ferdy technique whereby I flipped the photo so that she looks horizontal.
When I zoomed in, I noticed what looked like a little worm coming out of her belly, and so I posted on a spider site to find out what it was. Well! Turns out to be part of the spiders genitalia called the 'scape' and is a coupling structure that allows the male palp to hold on. In some species, the male will deliberately mutilate the scape to prevent her mating with anyone else.
Research article here if you wish to know more about female genital mutilation in spiders!:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4780549/
The spider species "Araneus diadematus" is commonly called the European garden spider, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider and crowned orb weaver. It is sometimes called the pumpkin spider, although this name is also used for a different species, "Araneus marmoreus". It is an orb-weaver spider found in Europe and North America.
comments (7)
I will let you know that my photo rotation patent was declined, so you're free to use without credit. Posted 4 years ago
Thank you ;) Posted 4 years ago