WEB DESIGNERS

We are in between autumns at the moment – the meteorological one, which started on September 1 and the astronomical one, which begins on the 22nd. Whichever you set your calendar by, the days, and the mornings especially, are definitely autumnal. I love the heavy dews, the misty blankets and nature’s most delicate of decorations – the spider’s webs. It is the dew at this time of year that highlights these beautiful structures although spiders are particularly busy this month.

The spiders commonly seen outside now are garden orb web spiders, Araneus spp., and they are the designers and builders of the large, roughly circular silk webs, suspended vertically from the stems and foliage of plants.

They have a seasonal timetable. They hatch in the spring, lie low in the summer to avoid being eaten and the survivors are now mature enough to spin their webs in order to catch food, and attract a mate.

Many orb-weavers build a new web each day. Generally, towards evening, the spider will consume the old web, rest for approximately an hour, then spin a new web in the same general location.