Argiope savignyi is a species of orb-weaving spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

 that occurs from Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

.
It was observed to capture and feed on the proboscis bat Rhynchonycteris naso in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, totally encasing the bat in silk during the course of a day.

A. savignyi sometimes spins a silk disc, sometimes a cruciate pattern, and sometimes combines both types.

The species is named after French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny

Marie Jules César Savigny

Marie Jules César Lelorgne de Savigny was a French zoologist.Savigny was born at Provins. In 1798 he travelled to Egypt with the Emperor Napoleon as part of the French scientific expedition to that country, and contributed to the publication of the findings of the expedition in 1809...

, in whose volumes the name Argiope was first published in 1825.

Further reading

(1968): The spider genera Gea and Argiope in America (Araneae: Araneidae). Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv. 136: 319-352. (1977): Associations Between Flies and Spiders: Bibiocommensalism and Dipsoparasitism? Psyche

Psyche (entomological journal)

Psyche is a scientific journal of entomology which was established in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club as a "journal for the publication of biological contributions upon Arthropoda from any competent person"....

84: 150-157. PDF (1985): Prey analysis of four species of tropical orb-weaving spiders (Araneae: Araneidae) and a comparison with araneids of the temperate zone. Oecologia 66(4): 580-594. (1989): Submersion survival in aerial web-weaving spiders from a tropical wet forest. Journal of Arachnology 17: 242-245. PDF