The March Spider of the Month (SOTM) is this ladybird orb-web spider (Paraplectanasp.; Araneidae), photographed by Shirley Zwingler in Karkloof, KwaZulu-Natal. The photo was posted by her friend, Annale van Schijndel, and unfortunately I realised too late it’s not her photo and that the photographer does not appear to be on Facebook. Next time I’ll make sure to check if the person is a member of the group 
Regarding this find, Shirley sent the following to Annale:
“This photo was taken early morning after rain the night before. The habitat was on the edge of natural bush, in long grass next to a stream in Karkloof near Howick. The spider crawled onto a fallen branch after appearing to untangle itself from its web.”
It is believed that these spiders mimic certain tortoise beetles and ladybird beetles. Even though they are much larger than these beetles, the aposematic colours and shape still resemble them enough for a potential predator to think twice about eating them.
Like some other members of the subfamily Cyrtarachninae, like the bolas spiders (Cladomelea spp.), they also feed on moths, and probably exclusively. I am not sure if, like with the bolas spiders, these would all be male moths attracted to a sex pheromone that the spider mimics, but it’s likely. However, instead of using a “bolas” to catch moths, they spin a spanning-thread orb web at night.
Described by Brito Capello in 1867, this genus contains 13 species, mainly found in Africa and Asia. Only two species (P. thorntoni and P. walleri) are recorded from South Africa, but the genus has not yet been revised and there are a few undescribed species.
The genus name means “resembling Plectana”. Plectana was an old genus whose members have since been moved to several other genera, such as Argiope, Cyrtarachne, Gasteracantha, Isoxya, etc.
Of 177 people who voted, this photo received 128 votes, which is a whopping 72% of the votes. Congratulations, Shirley, and thanks to everyone who voted!