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Spider Behavior
Name: Robert
Status: other
Age: 30s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001
Question:
To whom it may concern:
My girlfriend "Melanie" has some large English Boxwoods where a yellow &
black Argiope has decided to make its home. Fortunately for this handsome
creature, I have deterred Melanie from "squishing" it and instead we have
adopted it and naming "her" Tex. We have been feeding Tex for the last
month, and she has grown exponentially! When we feed her, sometimes she
displays an unusual behavior. Typically after we place in her web a
cricket, ant, moth, or some nasty creepy crawly for her breakfast, lunch,
or dinner...sometimes she will begin to bounce on the web. Tex does not
jump up and down per say, but she will cause the web to move back and
forth in a rapid and constant motion. Thus, our question is, "what the
heck is she doing?"
Replies:
This is pretty typical behavior for orb-weavers. The spider may be testing
the item in the web, to see if it is really caught or might prove dangerous
to the spider. I have been told that sometimes spiders will do this in
response to a hand held near the web, within the spider's view.
J. Elliott
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Update: June 2012
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