Argiope argentata

It's been a while! I think these are Argiope argentata.

Argiope argentata

An Argiope Argentata posing beautifully at Bolsa Chica. Look at that lovely silver tracing.

Silver Argiope at Bolsa Chica

These were all over the prickly pears. Stunning, aren't they? And very alien-looking.

Fortunately for me, there were some in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands building, so I had a quick ID. Also, they are natives to the area, which is always fun (Technically, Brown Widows aren't, but we sure have enough of them around).

Now, I need to learn more about them--like, what do they eat? How long do they live? Where are they when they are not on prickly pear cactus in Bolsa Chica? And so on and so forth.


It's amazingly hard to find lifestyle information on individual spiders. The Widows get a lot of press, but the nice, harmless, bug-eaters that hang around, not so much.

Argentata and very well-wrapped prey.