traianbertau's Favorites

UPDATE

With reference to this submission:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155565115

This is the same male as in the observation cited above.
The male was identified by Prof Ansie Dippenaar as a Trichonephila species.
The observation confirms that a Trichonephila male was observed with his "genitals" inside the genitals of an Argiope female.

The following may now be applicable:

1. The male was "stealing" sperm as a food supplement for himself
2. The male was confused and just investigating if the female was a Trichonephila female
3. The male was indeed mating with the Argiope female (successful or not)
4. We all have the identifications of the spiders wrong
5. I have it all wrong and something else is going on here!

My question is whether inter-genus matings in spiders have been observed before.
Thank you if you can shed some light on my observation - appreciated.
@hrodulf
@razorspider
@geologyistheway

UPDATE
See my comment below (lower down in the discussions).

ORIGINAL NOTES
Am I confused?, or is the spider confused?
What is going on here? Yes, I can see it is spider sex, but why is a Trichonephila male mating with an Argiope female?
@hrodulf, I need your help here (because I have seen some of your spectacular spider mating photographs before).
To me the male looks like one of the Trichonephila species - I have observed them on many occasions with their female counterparts.
In some of the photographs the pedipalps of the male can be seen and also where the male is inserting his pedipalps into the female's vulva.
I am aware that many different species of spiders may inhabit one loose standing orb web, but cross species mating in such webs?
Thank you if you can correct me or clarify the situation.
A possible id on the Argiope female would also be appreciated.
Thanks!