Oval St Andrew’s Cross Spider

This stripy lady, known as Oval St Andrew’s Cross Spider (Argiope aemula, or ナガマルコガネグモ in Japanese), made a home in my yet-to-flower bougainvillea. She did well netting endlessly sacrificial grasshoppers and flies in her wide web. She’s not poisonous, I’m told, but I still think we’re better acquainted from a distance. These spiders are spread across Southern and Eastern Asia and Australia and the female grows up to 30 mm, making the Oval Cross Spider smaller than that other colourful garden spider, the Golden Orb Weaver, which nests in similar places around my garden, but more spidery and less Alien. This particular spider stayed for a while and was even joined by a tiny mate, which she undoubtedly cannibalised after mating, before a summer typhoon blew her home away.