A spider's work is never done

While we were having breakfast early morning, so was this European garden spider (x3), AKA Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus). She was just finishing up the arachnid version of Jimmy Dean Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick -- prey nabbed earlier and packaged in silk for "a hearty breakfast or snack that's not only filling but easy to eat and enjoy" -- when we caught this image of her hanging upside down from a rather large web about 15" in diameter suspended over a 3' span between the Rosa multiflora just outside our back door and a potted indoor Hoya that is still outside enjoying the lingering summerish weather.

"Misidentifications by non-arachnologists are the source of a very large number of false spider reports and 'scares' in the news media," writes "Seattle's renowned spider expert" Rod Crawford [via My spiders!] of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington, proprietor of the multiple-eye-opening Spider Myths Site:

Why, why do people waste their time worrying about spiders? It is not spiders that are dangerous to your children; the dangerous ones are other humans!

"Spiders are not miniature vampires," declares an indignant Rod Crawford, busting the myth that "spiders do not literally eat the insects they kill" but "only suck the 'juices' or blood." Instead, the spider will "bite the prey, wrap it in silk, wait for it to die, then begin to eat," vomiting digestive fluid over the prey and chewing with the jaws' (chelicerae). Then "the fluid is sucked back into the mouth, together with some liquefied 'meat' from the prey." A chacun son goût? 

False reports and "scares" in the news media, whether of spiders or anything under the sun -- from Al Gore's "emergency" call for a "global Marshall plan" and Crisco's early-20th-century smearing of lard to George Soros's insidious funding of groups like MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion -- are, in fact, our species' stock in trade, one of the ur-themes of this blog. But that's not important right now.

A post-prandial nap in the curl of a Hoya leaf. We would never have known where Araneus diademitus spends the day had we not happened to be watching at just the moment when she finished the last mouthful of her morning meal and hurried off stage left along one of the anchor threads of her web for some shut-eye.

You may have noticed the broken threads and general disarray of the orb web in the top photograph. Apparently that's par for the course, as arachnologist Samuel Zschokke, whose research focusses on the structure and construction of orb webs, explains:

The spider usually replaces the web every night or every other night.

When it stays at the same place it reuses large parts of the anchor and frame threads, but it replaces all radii and the sticky spiral. The old web is ingested and recycled into new silk.

It turns out our spider is a film star. Four spinnerets to Zschokke's informative and awe-inspiring movies and animation iillustrating Araneus diadematus's web-construction methods and materials.

Waste not, want not. It's nature's way, not just with materials, but with labor too:

When the spider has finished the auxiliary spiral it rests for about one minute.

It is thought that this rest is required to switch silk production from the tough, non-sticky silk (which the spider has used for all parts of the web so far) to the sticky, much more elastic silk used for the sticky spiral.

After this short break, the spider turns around and starts with the construction of the sticky spiral.

A spider's work is never done.

Update: Modulator's work is never done either. If it's Friday, it's time for another Friday Ark, #158.

Comments

[goomp]

You have increased my knowledge of the spider world tremendously, but even now that I know more about them I cannot develop a warm, fuzzy feeling for them.

[Teresa]

I have to say I agree with goomp 100%. Spiders may spin their webs and have their fun... outside my house. heh.

[Sissy Willis]

Goomp and Teresa: I know what you mean. The "EEK, a mouse" response. I think part of my interest is the shock value. "-)

[Gayle Miller]

I'm with goomp!

Nothing of a "buggish" nature survives in my house anyway. Tim, my little athlete, hunts them down, catches them in midair, consumes them and then - far too often - comes trundling over to me for a kiss and praise!

[bird dog]

Bug photography is your ur-theme. Politics is your sideline.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Ahh. Sissy, you make even a little Miss Muffet think kindlier of the industrious spider. I was bitten by a brown recluse when I was sixteen and it made me really sick. I lost tissue in my thigh and never felt comfortable wearing short shorts ever since. So the spider actually had the effect of making me think more about skin exposure, resulting in a modesty that has kept me in good stead.

[hnav]

wow !

such clarity...

amazing.

perfect for the coming of Holloween.

eeeeeeek.

[Duncan]

Beautiful spider, beautiful photo.