A Field Guide to Your Own Back Yard () by John Hanson Mitchell

Author:John Hanson Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countryman Press

Garden Spider

If you touch one of the webs lightly, the spider may shake the entire structure, though why she does this is not known. If by chance you crash through the web, or touch it too roughly, the spider will drop from its perch and hide in the plants at the base of the web.

Construction of the web takes place generally at night and is a fairly involved process. The spider begins by climbing down one support system and up another to string an irregular five- or six-sided framework about one foot across. It then drops a line down the middle to the bottom, returns to the center and fastens another line, climbs down the first line and along the framework, attaches another line at an angle to the center line, and returns to the center. It continues this process until it has made a wheel-like web with some twenty spokes. The spider then goes to the center and begins to weave a spiral between the spokes attaching the line to each spoke in the process. She returns to the framework and begins a spiral from the outside. When the orb is finished, she weaves down the center, a ladderlike ribbon of white thread known popularly as the winding stair. This structure may strengthen the web or may simply be ornamentation. In any case, with the web completed, the orb weaver takes up a position near the center and waits for some unsuspecting insect to fly or jump into her net.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.