Nephilengys malabarensis
Nephilengys malabarensis is an nephilid spider.
Females reach a body length of almost. The legs and palp are annulated yellow and black. Male body size less than, with mostly grey-black legs.
N. malabarensis is being preyed upon by the spider-eating jumping spider Portia.
Name
The species name malabarensis refers to the Malabar coast of southern India, where it was first found.Description
N. malabarensis is a relatively large orb-weaver spider with distinct sexual size dimorphism. Females are considerably larger than males, with a total length ranging from 10.4 to 18.6 mm, while males measure only 5.0 to 5.9 mm in total length.According to the original description by Walckenaer, the female has a body length of approximately 10 lines. The cephalothorax is short, black, wide and convex at the anterior part, with a smooth sternum that is pale yellow and uniformly bordered near the legs by a brown line. The anterior eyes of the median row are closer together and larger than the posterior ones, with the lateral eyes widely spaced but positioned on the same prominence of the cephalothorax.
Modern descriptions show considerable color variation in this species. In females, the prosoma is typically dark red-brown, while the sternum is characteristically orange in living specimens, often with broad lateral brown bands. The abdomen shows variable coloration from white through various shades of grey to black, with the dorsum typically white with brown dots. The venter is brown with two large pairs of irregularly shaped orange patches in live specimens, along with smaller orange dots between the epigynum and pedicel.
Males are much smaller and differently colored, with an orange prosoma and grey-black legs, except for yellow coxae, trochanters, and proximal femora. The male's scutum is orange with a medial black stripe in live specimens.
The abdomen is brown on the dorsum with paler patches, and the venter is brown with oval or triangular spots of bright yellow. The anterior spots near the cephalothorax are triangular, while the posterior ones are finer and surround the anus. The sides have longitudinal yellow streaks. The legs are reddish with brown rings at the joints, described as fine and not very elongated.