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Comments & ID Thoughts
Well, I'm late, but here it is! The last installment in my Spider Approaches to House Cleaning series.
Comic 7 of 7:
This is Marie, a Cat-faced Orb-weaver (Araneus gemmoides). She spent the late fall and early winter in a bush outside my window. I had the opportunity to feed her a fly, which was very neat! She was very enthusiastic about the fly but fumbled a bit before getting a secure grip on it. She seemed not to know where it was unless she was touching it. The way she responded to my offer of food reminded me of the fact that orb-weavers are almost blind, relying on touch to navigate their world.
While I did not have the chance to observe Marie cleaning her web, I understand that orb-weavers typically discard unwanted objects simply by dropping them or cutting them out of their webs.
My reference image for this drawing was a picture I took myself. I'll also be sharing some photographs I took of Marie, including the reference image and one showing her wrapping the fly.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Apr 15, 2021
- Photographed: Oct 14, 2020
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Moscow, Idaho, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Low foliage (shrubs, herbs, garden, excluding flowers)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
Thank you! I didn’t know that they cut sections of the web. All the science books say that orbweavers eat and rebuild their webs every day. That isn’t what I’ve personally observed, not even once. I’ve watched both Northern and Southern Orbweavers. Some just repair sections, some wait a few days before eating and replacing, and some just start over in a new spot.
I don’t have a rigorous source on their cutting their webs, so don’t take my word for it. I really should have done some research before posting. That’s what held me up so long, and then I forgot why I was waiting. Oops. 🙁 I’d be eager to find out what orb-weavers actually do when something they don’t want hits their webs. I want more opportunities to observe them in the wild, but orb-weavers are not as abundant here as I had expected; perhaps I’m simply looking in the wrong places. I have seen plenty of orb-weavers ignoring small insects… Read more »