On spindly, but stealthy, multi-hued legs, Carlotta scuttles across the light green nopal (cactus) pad. Her uniformly mottled abdomen is plump in brownish-black and yellow, accessorized with orange. Upon closer examination, we find Carlotta’s hairy face and head resembles that of a minute monkey. Eight bristle-haired legs, articulated in three places, stretch as she moves forward.
Carlotta, the latest notable resident in our garden, is an garden spider (Argiope aurantia). Her rare bite is innocuous to humans. I find her in a neatly-finished, regularly woven web. I admit that I am guessing at her sex—females tend to be larger than males, and she, at least to my inexperienced eye, is super-sized.
I watch her through blistering daytime temperatures. She moves to the shade of a succulent young nopal pad until the heat of the day passes, then she comes back out to the middle of her web. Carlotta keeps a neat web; I find no debris such as I find in the black widows’ nests.
Each morning, Carlotta’s intricate web glistens in the rising sun as she once again sits majestically at the center of her throne, awaiting her next meal.
(This is an updated post. I was misinformed about the species of spider, and this post shows the correction to that misinformation.)
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