Lepen garden spider (Argiope pictula)

Lepen garden spider (Argiope pictula) is an animal species in the Araneidae, a medium sized insect, a spider that often has a striking color, carapace covered in reflective silvery hair, lives in tropical regions in environments of running water in forests, farmlands, parks and human settlements.

A. pictula perched on the net with its head down, has a carapace that is square with three corners on the top, flat, yellow surface with several brown lines, has black four-dot markings.

The head is shaped like a semicircle, brown with silvery white hair. Lepen garden spider has eight legs and is often attached so that it appears only four. The legs have joints, are brown in color and have white coarse hairs.

The net is pure white with the center being 1 meter above the water or ground. A. pictula sits in the middle of the net during the day to wait for prey and avoid predators. They eat insects to small bats.

Females are larger than males. The female places 400-1400 eggs into the mesh bag. The egg sac consists of several layers of silk and protects the contents from being damaged.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Infraorder: Entelegynae
Superfamily: Araneoidea
Family: Araneidae
Subfamily: Argiopinae
Genus: Argiope
Species: Argiope pictula

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