|
|
Tent Spider - Cyrtophora moluccensis
FAMILY ARANEIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Tent Spiders that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- leg to leg 50mm
- Tent Spiders are also known as Dome-web Spiders. They are common in Brisbane garden. The spiders have silver patterns on their bodies, some with yellow background colour, some with red and some with dark blue.
- 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 find that the spiders use quite an amount of their time to clean the plant materials drop on their web, especially in windy season. They will cut the part of their web which is entangle with the plant materials and drop it 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.
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.
