Dome Tent Spider

Cyrtophora moluccensis

Common in open woodland. The colourful abdominal markings of this large spider make it reasonably easy to recognize. Although it technically belongs to the orb-web spiders (family Araneidae), Cyrtophora moluccensis does not build an orb web. Its tent-like, highly complex non-sticky web is sometimes considered a precursor of the simplified orb-web.
Arachnophobia An exotic spider from Papua New Guinea. Cyrtophora moluccensis,Dome Tent Spider,Geotagged,Papua New Guinea,Spring

Appearance

The spiders have silver patterns on their bodies, some with yellow background colour, some with red and some with dark blue. Male spiders looked the same but bout 1/4 the size of female. Immature female, leg to leg 10mm. Immature female is yellow-green in colour.
New Guinea Tent Spider I shot this Cyrtophora moluccensis in Aiyura, Papua New Guinea. My Papua New Guinean friend commented that it looks like a mask on its bum. They are beautiful but they string their giant webs high in the air with many other spiders. Kinda creepy when you get underneath them. Cyrtophora moluccensis,Dome Tent Spider

Naming

Doleschall, 1857
Dome Tent Spider - Cyrtophora moluccensis In her web Australia,Cyrtophora moluccensis,Dome Tent Spider,Eamw images,Eamw spiders,Geotagged,Spring

Distribution

India: Kerala, Sikkim, Meghalaya; Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Malaysia Habitat: Moist Deciduous forests.
The Dome Tent-web spider (Cyrtophora moluccensis) Cyrtophora moluccensis,Dome Tent Spider,Geotagged,Indonesia,Summer

Behavior

Tent Spiders build tent shaped webs between plants and bushes. Their tent shaped webs are easily recognized, up to 60cm in diameter. Their web look similar to the web of Russian Tent Spiders except much larger in size and they do not build the retreat at the centre of the web.

Unlike the other spider webs, the webs of Tent Spiders and Russian Tent Spiders do not have sticky silk. The spiders rest upside down in the middle of the tent from day to night. Sometimes we can see a few of the Tent Spiders build their tent webs joined together and cover an area of a few meters.

In summer the females build the egg sac at the middle of their tent web. The spider use their web for one to two weeks before rebuild it. The spider will repair the web if it is broken. We found that the spiders use quite an amount of their time to clean the plant materials drop and attached on their web, especially in windy season.

They will cut the part of their web which is entangle with the plant materials and drop them onto the ground. They usually build their webs among the bushes and never across the walking track or path. So we seldom accidentally walk into a tend web.
Dome Tent Spider -back, Minggre, Arfak Mountains, Papua Interesting thing about this species is that it usually builds a solitary web, but sometimes a "colonial" web, which is enormous. This still does not make it a social spider as each individual will defend their own turf. https://www.jungledragon.com/image/157447/dome_tent_spider_-_colonial_web_minggre_arfak_mountains_papua.html https://www.jungledragon.com/image/157448/dome_tent_spider_minggre_arfak_mountains_papua.html https://www.jungledragon.com/image/157449/dome_tent_spider_-back_minggre_arfak_mountains_papua.html Arfak Mountains,Australia (continent),Cyrtophora moluccensis,Dome Tent Spider,Geotagged,Indonesia,Minggre,New Guinea,Papua,Papua 2023,Spring,Vogelkop,West Papua,Western New Guinea

Habitat

Moist deciduous forest
Messy Webbings but she is Gorgeous This Spider has a messy webbings but has interesting colours - mostly blueish and white and orange abdomen. The ID I was given so far is from the genus Cyrtophora. Cyrtophora,Cyrtophora moluccensis,Cyrtophora sp,Dome Tent Spider,Fiji,Spider

Food

Insects

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_weavers/TentSpiders.htm
http://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=946
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassArachnida
OrderAraneae
FamilyAraneidae
GenusCyrtophora
SpeciesCyrtophora moluccensis
Photographed in
Australia
Fiji
Indonesia
Malaysia
Papua New Guinea