Christmas Spider, Jewel Spider at Molonglo Valley, ACT
Identification history
| Austracantha minax | 2 Feb 2018 | KimPullen | ||
| Austracantha minax | 1 Feb 2018 | HarveyPerkins | ||
| Unidentified | 18 Nov 2017 | HarveyPerkins |
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4 comments
HarveyPerkins
wrote:
19 Nov 2017
I have no idea what these little cocoons are made by. I've submitted under 'moths' but I really don't know. The binding of the cocoon to the stems suggests the structure was constructed from the inside and working outwards (whereas lepidopterous cocoons normally start on the outside and finish inside). So maybe an egg case? My only other comment at this stage is that the skeletonising of a eucalypt leaf by a Uraba lugens larva is evident in the second photo.
CathB
wrote:
31 Jan 2018
I collected one of these a while ago and was surprised to see spiders hatch from it. With some googling, I discovered these are the egg sacs of the Jewel Spider, Austracantha minax
HarveyPerkins
wrote:
1 Feb 2018
Thank you CathB! Great to have that mystery solved. I thought it had to be an egg sac of some sort but I didn't think of a spider as a possibility. Although I can't recall seeing Christmas/Jewel spiders at this particular location this year, they are abundant just across Caswell Drive (as was) on the lower slopes of Black Mountain.
lebobo
wrote:
18 Jul 2020
Hi. Thanks for this conversation. I have 4 of these egg sacks in my lime tree, a tree were during summer Christmas jewel spiders were living (don't know were they hide during winter) First noticed in February and after 5 months in July I could not resist to cut one off the tree and see what was inside. To my surprise there were many many very small spiders in the cocoon. Porongurup WA South West.
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Nearby sightings
Location information
- Coordinates 149.081385-35.284261
- Maps National Arboretum Forests
- Places Molonglo Valley, ACT
Sighting information
- 2 Abundance
- 14 Oct 2017 09:28 AM Recorded on
- HarveyPerkins Recorded by
-
Collections
Spiders Orb-weaving spiders (several families)
Additional information
- 12mm to 25mm Animal size
Species information
- Austracantha minax Scientific name
- Christmas Spider, Jewel Spider Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 966.7m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
- External link More information
-
Synonyms
Gasteracantha minax
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
