A Spiderweb Collection
Posted on September 15, 2017 Posted by John Scalzi 9 Comments
This morning was dewy and we have quite a lot of spiders around the Scalzi Compound (it being a rural area and full of bugs, you see), so I went out with my camera and took pictures of some of the webs, and occasionally, the webs’ architects as well. The collection of images is here, if you’d like to see them. Obviously for the spider-sensitive, this collection will feature arachnids, so be aware. I’m making this its own album and will probably add to it over time, so if you like spiders and spiderwebs, check in from time to time.
I walked through a spiderweb the other day. Didn’t even flinch.
I too love morning dew on spider webs.
Southeast Texas… we get a lot of spiders in our homes here, but that’s a good thing–they eat the monster cockroaches the piney woods and Gulf Coast are known for. I’ll take a spider over a fat grandaddy cockroach any day, and twice on Sundays.
Haven’t seen a really breathtaking web in a while, though. Maybe that means the roaches are winning? Still, the big Orb-Weavers and the Banana Spiders make the best webs down here. Yours looks like a Wolf Spider funnel web. Some of them look like wire-frames of gravity wells…
Your photos are amazing! We’re just starting to get Harvest Spiders out here in Oregon. They’re huge and beautiful and they make the most beautiful webs. It’s considered lucky to have one at your doorway and I’ve got one on my front door lamp this season so let the luck happen! I’m calling it Herman.
I’m with @clancyweeksblog. Y’all got the dinkiest li’l orb-weavers I ever saw. Orb webs around central Texas generally imply the presence of a big-assed writing (argiope) spider, as big as an Eisenhower dollar, tip to tip.
Nice shots. The orbweavers look like the usual Araneus/Neoscona variety you get around houses (you can, iirc, distinguish by the light dashes on the underside black epigynum, if you can’t see the abdominal patterns, but dang me if I remember which is which). The sheet/funnelwebs of the Agelenids always jump out when the dew is on them, don’t they. They sort of merge into the weeds when they’re dry (probably not surprising, but it always surprises me). That tangling overtop is pretty effective at knocking little flying things down on the trampoline web, I understand, for the zippy spider to dash out and bring in for a nice snack. Spiders are very hospitable and anxious to welcome guests.
Just as a side note, the biggest orbwebs I ever saw (outside the big Nephila Goldensilk/’Banana’ Spiders) were just this sort of Araneid. The Argiopes are cool and big, but they don’t make webs that stretch 8 feet from the eaves to the ground. Well, the web itself wasn’t really that big – but the frame it was built on was. I fed it small toads, among other things.
I can’t say that I am very fond of spiders, but their webs are beautiful. The other day I saw a single strand of a web stretching from one branch to another in a nearby tree. It glistened in the sun.
Spiders are fascinating creatures. But here in Australia, you have to be careful, as some of them are poisonous, such as the Redback, which is common where I live.Luckily it is mostly an outdoor spider.I once sat my mother-in-law down on an outdoor chair that had a Redback living on the underside of the seat. I,’m sure she thinks I did it on purpose.( I didn’t , honest)
I lived in Texas for a number of years so I have experienced the glory of the argiope spiders. Beautiful creatures. I think I once counted 22 argiope of varying sizes webbed on the outside of our house.
One industrious argiope kept spinning a huge web right across the front door. I’d have to be sure to look out the window before opening the door or risk walking into a sticky web and an irritated spider. I always apologized when I had to break down the web to be able to get out of the house.