Caught some orbweavers mating?! (Video included)

[Krystal Anne]

Well, I think they're mating, I can't imagine it being anything else. It was amazing to watch in person!

Here's a quick 1 minute video:

The first part shows some random tapping (the male tapped on the female's legs while she wasn't really moving), the second part shows this pulsating twitching, and the third part shows the male leaving, doing something to the web(?), then coming back for more tapping. In some moments, they looked like they were webbing together?! I don't even know. Her regular web is 2-3 feet away. The whole process lasted for several minutes.

I don't know too much about orbweavers, let alone their mating process, so I would love for someone to explain and clarify.

Also, here are photos of the female because it would be nice to have an exact ID... She's mostly white-colored and fuzzy! I have a couple of ideas but here:





Cute little side note: the female's name is Somi and she lives outside my sister's apartment. My sister started to care for her because of me. She used to be an arachnophobe who always kills spiders but now she's the opposite.

 

[lostbrane]

Well, it is not related to this species (or even genus for that matter), but all that I could find was that females might be more receptive with the tapping. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3547032/ was what I was looking at, and I would imagine that something similar is going on here.

 

[Krystal Anne]

Well, it is not related to this species (or even genus for that matter), but all that I could find was that females might be more receptive with the tapping. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3547032/ was what I was looking at, and I would imagine that something similar is going on here.

Very interesting, thank you! I definitely saw a lot of that courtship (tugging, bouncing, shuddering) though he was doing it to her body instead of her web. Maybe because she was far from her web, or maybe they already did that and moved away together? Heh, thanks!

 

[The Snark]

Araneus Gemma I think.

 

[lostbrane]

There was some other article I read right before that, where the male for N. pilipes males actually do a sort of massage, to "relax" the female. There is a likely chance that the behaviors don't cross over as it were, but it makes sense to me so I'll hold to that until there is further illumination.

 

[BoyFromLA]

I loved the video!

 

[Ungoliant]

Also, here are photos of the female because it would be nice to have an exact ID...

Neoscona crucifera

 

[Krystal Anne]

I loved the video!

Neoscona crucifera

Thank you!

 

[The Snark]

Neoscona crucifera

I was thinking Neoscona but the pattern on the back was identical to Gemma. But that is of course going by web surfed and often mis-IDed pictures. (Just saw a Shinkansen IDed as Siemens Euro train a minute ago.)

 

[dangerforceidle]

The video of the courtship is so neat!

Related, this is a photo of some Nephila clavata mating (taken in Japan).

 

[Krystal Anne]

The video of the courtship is so neat!

Related, this is a photo of some Nephila clavata mating (taken in Japan).

Thank you! And WOW that's a beautiful photo! I'm always amazed by some of these size differences. Must have been neat to see that in person!