Lobed Argiope \ Argiope lobata

The Lobed Argiope (Argiope lobata) is an orb-weaving spider of the family Araneidae. It belongs to Argiope, a genus of 89 recognised species found around the world, whose members typically build large, conspicuous orb webs in open, sunlit places. Our photographs come from the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Published research on this species is still thin, however, and the field study drawn on here was carried out in Spain. The web is a vertical orb. In a study of 317 occupied webs, about three quarters carried a stabilimentum, a silk decoration woven into the web. These decorations were usually simple, most often a single arm running below the hub, and they appeared more often on larger and higher webs. The spider anchors its web to whatever plants are available. On the Columbretes Islands, it set its webs as high as the vegetation allowed, and bigger, higher webs tended to be longer than they were wide. Web direction was not random, which may help the spider balance its exposure to the sun. Like other orb-weavers, it has limited vision and senses prey through vibrations in the silk. It hunts passively, eating whatever flies or jumps into the web. Hymenoptera made up most of the prey, and Orthoptera such as grasshoppers were also frequent. Other recorded prey include Diptera, Odonata, other spiders, occasional vertebrates, and even an adult female of its own species.