We were out in the gardens Thursday evening when what did I behold at the tip of a rosemary but a tiny orbweaver! I ran into the house for my camera and ended up taking photos of a lot more spiders.
Isn't she just BEAUTIFUL!? She's a species of orbweaver, very likely Eriophora ravilla.
See just how small she is?
I'd been noticing tons of webbing on the same rosemary plants and also salvias in the front yard. Time to pin down the "culprits"....
Ah ha! Very likely a funnel weaver of some sort. I didn't get a very good photo but the one above pretty much confirms the ID for me. They sure are messy!
Talk about hard to photograph! This little tiny gal was TOUGH! She's an orbweaver for sure. She's sitting on a "stabilimentum," a silken structure on a web. You've seen the zigzags that garden spiders build in the middle of their webs, right? Same thing. Biologists theorize that the structures ward of birds and/or reflect ultraviolet light, which would attract flying insects.
I also spotted this tiny crab spider on the woolly ironweed, blooming in the back yard. She's in the classic ready-to-pounce-and-grab mode that crab spiders use to catch prey. Love my spiders, all of them!
3 comments:
Another interesting post about spiders! I too find them incredible little creatures! Also, lately I've noticed all of the oak trees on our property covered with lots of webs and wondered what kind of spider was making them. I'm usually walking my dog down the driveway first thing in the morning and forget to go back to inspect closer. Now you've inspired me to investigate!
I'm glad! :-)
There are so many beautiful spiders in our gardens that we never notice! Thank you for bringing these beauties to our attention so we can watch for them. When I was a little kid I used to break open mud dauber nests to see all the spiders in them. Not a very nice thing to do, but what a variety of colorful spiders I found.
Post a Comment