Kingdom Animalia Class Arachnida Infraorder Araneomorphae Scientific name Argiope aetherea Rank Species | Subphylum Chelicerata Order Araneae Family Araneidae Phylum Arthropoda | |
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Similar Argiope, Argiope keyserlingi, Argiope picta, Argiope protensa, Argiope mascordi | ||
Argiope aetherea is a common, large orb-web spider (family Araneidae). Like other species of Argiope, it is commonly known as the St Andrew's Cross spider, due to the characteristic cross-shaped web decorations female spiders often include in their webs. A. aetherea is similar in appearance to A. keyserlingi, however female A. aetherea are generally larger than A. keyserlingi. Like most orb-web spiders, A. aetherea shows considerable sexual size dimorphism, with females being many times larger than males.
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Distribution
Argiope aetherea is found from China to Australia. It is commonly found along the east coast of Australia, in particular Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
Subspecies
There exists a subspecies from New Guinea:
References
Argiope aetherea Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA