This morning was a treat. I recently found an Argiope aurantia and her web. I know that Argiope rebuild their web each morning. Today, I went to the web place and sure enough she was rebuilding her web. I took some photos and videos. After she completes weaving the circumferential elements, she retreats to the center of her web and glues small segments of silk in the center of her web. She rests a bit and then, instead of extruding single strands of silk, she extrudes ribbons of silk and paints here web decorations (stabilimenta)
Here she is at 7am extruding a single strand of silk and glues it to a radial element thus forming a segment of the circumferential elements.
its early morning and without a flash, there is a wonderful silhouette of the Argiope aurantia
Here she is weaving circumferential segments. A ballet of repetitive motion
Seen here is extraction of a silk strand from her spinnerets
Another view of her spinnerets
After completing the circumferential elements, she returns to the center and closes it with a mesh of short strands. She takes a break, poops, and returns to tacking on shot segments across the center core of her web
Not only can she extrude a single strand - she can extrude a ribbon of silk. Here she is painting her zig-zag web decoration (stabilimenta0
Painting the lower zig-zag stabilimenta
Video of painting the lower zig-zag decoration
Here, painting the upper zig-zag decoration
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