''Leucauge argyra'' is a

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

and is known for being the

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

of the ''

Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga ''Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga'' is a Costa Rican parasitoid wasp whose host is the spider ''Plesiometa argyra''. The wasp is unusual in modifying the spider's web building behavior to make a web made of very strong lines designed to support the ...

'', a

Costa Rican Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

or Puerto Rican

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

.Eberhard, W. (2001) Under the influence: Webs and building behavior of ''Plesiometa argyra'' (Araneae, Tetragnathidae) when parasitized by ''Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga'' (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). The Journal of Arachnology 29:354–366. It is found in

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United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. ''Leucauge argyra'' (and many other ''Leucauge spp.'') is known to be a colonial species, with spiders maintaining individual territories/orb webs within a scaffolding of shared support lines maintained by the group. Colonies of multi-generational individuals are often seen with some levels of size stratification (where larger individuals/adults occupy the highest web positions and smaller individuals/juveniles occupy lower web positions).

Description

''Leucauge argyra'' has three lines on the abdomen that run parallel only about halfway across the abdomen, where the outer two bend inward before continuing parallel again through the rest of the abdomen. These markings can be somewhat variable, and different from '' L. venusta'', where the abdomen has inverted V-markings.Walckenaer, C.A. (1842) Histoire naturelle des Insects. ''Aptères.'' Paris, 2:1-549. The web of juveniles has an upper tangle with threads connecting it to the hub and occasionally another tangle below the orb web, but these tangles are absent in webs of adults. The upper tangle consists of a few threads that cover only a narrow section across the middle of the orb.Barrantes, G., Cuyckens E. (2011) Function of the upper tangle in webs of young ''Leucauge argyra'' (Araneae: Tetragnathidae). American Arachnological Society. A similar species to ''L. argyra'' is ''

Leucauge mariana ''Leucauge mariana'' is a long-jawed orb weaver spider, native to Central America and South America. Its web building and sexual behavior have been studied extensively. Males perform several kinds of courtship behavior to induce females to copula ...

''.

Gallery

File:Leucauge_argyra.jpg, ''L. argyra'' in web

References

* (2009)
The world spider catalog
version 9.5. ''American Museum of Natural History''.

External links

Bug Guide

Nearctic Spider Database
argyra Spiders described in 1842 Spiders of Central America {{Tetragnathidae-stub