{"id":5720,"date":"2024-09-08T10:40:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T10:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=5720"},"modified":"2026-08-23T10:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T10:11:17","slug":"2024-08-the-lesser-garden-spider-in-jarfalla-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2024-08-the-lesser-garden-spider-in-jarfalla-en\/","title":{"rendered":"High-stakes romance: The lesser garden spiders of J\u00e4rf\u00e4lla"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lesser garden spider (most likely <em>Metellina segmentata<\/em>) is frequently confused with its close relative, <em>Metellina mengei<\/em>. While the two species look nearly identical, they are easily distinguished by their seasonal phenology; <em>M. mengei<\/em> reaches maturity in the spring and early summer, whereas <em>M. segmentata<\/em> matures much later, thriving throughout the autumn\u2014a trait that has earned it the common nickname &#8220;autumn spider.&#8221; For these spiders, courtship is a high-stakes game, as the smaller males live in constant fear of being cannibalized by the females. To minimize the risk, a patient male will linger at the edge of a female&#8217;s web, waiting until she snags a prey item. Once she is completely distracted by her meal, the male will safely approach to mate. In some instances, a crafty male will even intercept a fly that lands in her web, paralyzing it for her to ensure she stays occupied during their encounter. I crossed paths with this beautiful spider during an autumn walk through the forest near my home in J\u00e4rf\u00e4lla, Sweden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lesser garden spider (most likely Metellina segmentata) is frequently confused with its close relative, Metellina mengei. While the two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"countries":[63,76],"order-category":[61,1029,45],"class_list":["post-5720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predators","countries-europe","countries-sweden","order-category-arachnids","order-category-arachnids-spiders-long-jawed-orb-weavers","order-category-arachnids-spiders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5724,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720\/revisions\/5724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5720"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=5720"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=5720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}