Tuesday, July 31, 2007

AHHHH . . . Snow . . . . . ?



It's been so blinkn' hot here. It's headed for the low 90's tomorrow. However, this morning in the park - it looked as though it'd snowed on a small portion of the box wood plants that ring the rose garden.

But I looked a little closer. There's somebody ready to welcome passersby into his ick-glue world. (Get it? - Ick! Glue! - Igloo? Sorry it's the best I can do in this heat :0)



Anybody know this spider's name. Noooo - I don't mean 'Harry', 'Stu', or 'Bob' or 'Suzie' for that matter. It just occurred to me that maybe male spiders don't need webs because they're not going to reproduce. I mean - no serious physical contribution. I mean - caloric requirements not huge for his purposes. C'mon. You know what I mean.
Gosh. How could I not know this? Maybe I'll knock on Bev's door at
Burning Silo and see if she's got an ID and whether or not the guys also build webs.

UPDATE: Thanks, Bev! Read Bev's comment (third down). I knew she'd share some interesting spider facts with us. Don't miss the link about Spider Love. Now that's interesting.

14 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Wow! That's ALOT of web!
I wouldn't want to be a flying insect in that guy's neighborhood!

Anvilcloud said...

Is that for real?

burning silo said...

sThat looks to me like some species of Funnel Web spider (Family Agelenidae). Their funnel webs are built for hunting - the spider hides down inside the hole in the funnel shapped web, and then races out to capture prey that venture into its space. As far as I know, both sexes build these types of webs for hunting. I've written about this type of spider a couple of times here and here. Hope these links work. Btw, it's hot here too. It's about 84F and quite humid. The forecast is for 90+ tomorrow and Wednesday. I was trying to install and outdoor modem earlier this afternoon, but gave up as it's just too hot to work on a ladder up on the side of the house. It'll be cooler once the sun goes down. (-:

Pam said...

Waaaaaaay cool!

Ruth said...

Wow. That is interesting. I will have to check out Bev's links. I have never noticed anything like that before.
ruth

Bonita said...

Wow, that is one productive little spider.

George called me out to his car this morning, saying "come QUICK!" I ran out in my bare feet, just to see that a tiny spider had placed her web inside, from the seat to the steering wheel. It was shimmering in the light, so pretty.

Anonymous said...

snow?? LOL you had me looking for sure! Great spider web shots!

Casey said...

I've had a little spider living in my rear-view mirror for the past month... he weaves at night, and dissembles during my driving to work every day. Or is it she...?

dmmgmfm said...

You are so funny and your pictures are awesome. I love the web shot. Just beautiful.

Hugs,
Laurie

Mary said...

Cathy,

I've never seen anything like it. I'm not fond of spiders but this is interesting.

Your first picture fooled me!

Thanks, Bev, for the details.

threecollie said...

Really interesting photos! Sorry to hear about your heat wave, in part because here is its next stop....
I am glad that you pointed me to Burning Silo some time ago, via your blogroll. It is a terrifically informative blog, which I like very much. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Plenty of spiders here too but usually just the big field type spiders but they do create fabulous webs. As to temperature well we will reach the soaring temperature of around 63F today probably with a south westerly keen breeze blowing in more rain no doubt but the valley is verdantly green, the rivers waterfalls and babbling brooks are all very evident so all is well if not what many would call summer:0)

Larry said...

That's pretty neat looking!It's been 95 and humid here-I don't even want to move.

Anonymous said...

Very cool! I wouldn't have been able to take those pictures...I would have been sprinting in the other direction!