Category: Spider Web

Marbled Orb Weaver

They seem to arrive every year at this time. Just when I’m thinking about the grand holiday. Halloween. It’s as if they know I want my porches decorated for the big day.

Dressed in an appropriate outfit for the season. Bright yellow and black coveralls complimented with long striped stockings of orange, black and white. Marbled Orb Weaver (Araneus marmoreus). This photo, above, the female. The photo, below, the male.

Seldom seen, male Marbled Orb Weavers are smaller than females. For the most part the males do not spin webs, but roam hunting for potential mates. 

As summer is waning the female lays her eggs, enclosing them in loose, fluffy sacs made from her silk. With a lifespan of approximately 6 months the spiderlings that emerge from their eggs in the spring will be on their own to fend for themselves. And the cycle continues.

And their webs. A creation a student of geometry or an artist would be proud to place their name upon.

How on Earth?

How in the world do they know how to create such beauty? Surely beauty is not their aim. But still, beauty to my eyes.

Yellow Garden Spider

Eye catching in its size and coloring, eye catching in its web design. Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia). A pretty large spider. The body of the female, the larger of the sexes, is about an inch in length, up to three times the size of males. Add those long legs and that is indeed a sizable spider.

Not a worry for us humans though. They are quite docile. Just be gentle and respectful. But they do have venom that they use to paralyze their prey which get caught in their webs. Yellow Garden Spiders dine on aphids, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, flies, moths.

There is no sure answer as to why they have that distinctive zigzag on their webs, but some scientists believe that it is to allow birds to see the web and avoid flying through it.

Seen across North America and Central America.

Hoarfrost

The cold temperatures of winter can create such works of wonder. Often so delicate they can’t be touched for fear of destruction.

Occasionally the beauty makes me forget that what I am looking at, such as these rose hips of Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), is something that I work diligently to rid my woods of. A very aggressive invasive that has the nerve to mimic our native blackberries during their times of blooming. But frosted during the cold of winter it has its charm. AND take a look at that image again. There is an undulating line of frost that starts on the left, about 1/4 of the way down that goes to the right, from that first rose hip, on to the second and then the third as it drops and then ends. THAT is a spider web also decorated with frostiness.

The berries of Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) with its frost rivals ANY image of a Cardinal in the snow. Glorious red with stark white. Perfection.

With the hoarfrost the needles of Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) each get their own personal set of needles.

The leaves of young White Oak (Quercus alba) don’t drop as most deciduous leaves do in the fall, but hang onto them until late spring. That gives them the chance to be dressed up. To be decorated by the spines of ice. The artwork of Mother Nature.