Daily Zoo Animal, # 19: Arabesque orbweaver

Arabesque orbweaver Neoscona arabesca

Because Alexis is away, I'm using my lunch breaks this week to go home and take care of the dogs. That means that I'm not walking around the zoo, finding daily zoo animals. Fortunately, it's still technically summer, so there are still some wild animals to be found on the zoo grounds, even away from the exhibits. This spider was in a torn up orb web on the back of a coworker's car. When I got home and looked up what kind of spider it was, I found that it was my old friend the arabesque orbweaver, as seen in a recent 3:00 snapshot. This one was quite a bit bigger, but it may have been a female, or perhaps just an older individual than the first I found. Today's was consistent with the size of a female according to my field guide: about 1 cm body length. Her spiky legs are much more prominent than on the one on my porch, too. Did the spider on the back of my coworker's car ride from that person's home all the way to the zoo, or did it join the car this morning and build its nest today?



On this day in 365 Urban Species: Cocklebur.