Spider facts: The garden orb weaving spider spins intricate webs
It's fascinating to watch this spider construct its web. The web is a classic round ‘orb’ web, which is suspended in a position that is likely to be a flight path for insects.
GARDEN orb weaving spiders build an orb shaped web in long grass or other vegetation close to the ground. Their webs are about 40 to 50cm in diametre. Their web is very distinctive and it’s what sets them apart from other spider species.
The orb weaving spider will often make a white shape in the middle of its web, sometimes a heart shape, a single slanted line or most commonly an X shape. Scientists are not sure why they do this, but there are some theories:
To provide camouflage or distraction for the spider, to make the web more visible to birds and other animals so that they don’t fly into it and break it, or to attract insects to fly into the web as the thicker lines reflect ultra-violet light.
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These harmless spiders are a common and widespread species throughout much of the world with several different sub-species in the genus from region to region.
“The ones I most commonly find in Durban have cryptic yellow and black markings on their bodies, with long black and brown banded legs. Their colouring makes them blend in well to their surroundings. They are fairly large spiders, with a body size of about 3cm in females. Males are much smaller, up to a thousand times smaller in fact,” said Warren Dick.
They only live for about two years and in that time the female lays three or four egg sacks with a few hundred eggs in each, but only a few make it to maturity.
An interesting fact about orb web building spiders:
When times are good and lots of prey flies into their web, they don’t let the extra food go to waist. Instead, they catch the prey, biting and wrapping it in silk and keeping it alive. This keeps the prey fresh until the spider feels like eating.
“One will often see small wrapped parcels of food in a spiders web saved for another time. When eating, the spider injects digestive enzymes into its prey, which liquefies the preys insides, making it easy for the spider to suck up,” Warren added.
Most orb web making spiders break down the center parts of their web in the early morning, then rebuild it in the early evening to catch food throughout the night.
To have some of your interesting spiders, snakes or other wildlife identified call or WhatsApp Warren on 072 211 0353 or visit his Facebook page, Warren’s Small World
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