I know I’ve lost the Arachnophobes with that title! I understand. Maybe another time…. But this fall, I got fascinated with spiders. Each September until mid-October, I look in the early morning, before the dew has dried, for the sparkling webs of Orbweaver spiders. The artistry of these eight-legged creators just delights and surprises me every time I see one.

Below is the most elaborately draped spider web that I’ve ever seen. Gary Parsons, the former director of Michigan State University’s “Bug House,” informs me that it’s just a normal Orbweaver web, probably one from the genus Agriope, but heavy dew or rain has stuck to the sticky silk and stretched it into this amazing chandelier design. Water makes the web more visible to possible predators, so spiders usually stay off them, making identification of the artist impossible. Alas! Just water and some fancy drooping on familiar webs. I thought perhaps I’d discovered the Leonardo of the spider world!

Spiders are under-appreciated creatures. They scuttle. They have hidden fangs for biting – though they rarely bite us unless mishandled. They do stun their prey with a bite, then wrap up their victim while the venom liquifies their innards. Later they return for a hearty protein drink through their straw-shaped mouths. All very creepy and Halloween-like, I agree.

But spiders are also colorful, amazingly skilled weavers who produce their own silk that is both very strong and very flexible. They help control unpopular “pest” insects like mosquitoes, midges, roaches, horseflies and lots of other flies. Photos in the Princeton Field Guide: Spiders of North America by Sarah Rose (excellent source!) show them wrapping up some non-native or invasive insects like German Yellowjackets (Vespula germanica), Spotted Lantern Flies (Lycorma delicatula), and Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs (Halyomorpha halys). Some even dance as part of their courting ritual! So in this season when folks drape their Halloween displays with not-so-beautiful imitation cobwebs, I got inspired to give the spiders and their unique webs a chance to shine.

The inspiration came from a birding friend and summer stewardship tech with our Oakland Township Parks & Recreation Department, Jarred McPherson. He showed members of the birding group a photo of a very tiny spider (less than a quarter inch total length) called the Castleback Orbweaver/Spined Micrathena Micrathena gracilis . Jarred discovered lots of them at O’Connor Nature Park, but hadn’t gotten a clear photo of the ones he saw. But here is a closeup from iNaturalist, so you can see why I got fascinated.

What an unlikely creature! It looks like a tiny alien of some kind, doesn’t it? None of us birders had ever seen a spider with a shell-like abdomen (opisthosoma)! The Castleback is often responsible for those webs that occasionally hit you in the face when walking on a trail, because they construct their orb webs between trees. They reconstruct the center layer of their web each night but leave the outer layers intact – unless, of course, we walked through them, frantically brushing off our faces!

As an appreciator of spiders in general, I asked Jarred if he would go with me on a spider walk, and he kindly obliged. In the early fall, when days are quite warm and nights are cold, the morning dew on a web helps both the human eye and the camera capture these diaphanous silk nets. And we were lucky; most of the spiders were waiting within the webs or nearby. Jarred got some tricky photos!

So my thanks go to Jarred McPherson for the walk and his photos, as well as photographer friends Aaron Carroll, Ewa Muztenmore, Joan Bonin, Bob Bonin, William McPherson (Jarred’s brother) and Bill Kamman for sharing their wonderful photos and videos. And another “thank you” to Gary Parsons of Michigan State University for his spider identifications and for his reference book suggestions, especially the book I used constantly, Princeton Field Guide: Spiders of North America by Sarah Rose.

All Spiders Use Their Silk, but Not All Make Webs

Spiders are closely associated in my mind, and maybe yours too, with their webs because they’re so visible. But spiders produce and use silk for more purposes than just webs. Silk is not spider excrement and has nothing to do with their digestive process. Spiders produce liquid silk from special internal glands and then extrude it through a special spinneret opening on the lower side of their abdomens. Once the liquid hits the air, it solidifies and is spun by appendages called spinnerets into various forms. The strange but wonderful photo below that I found at Wikimedia Commons shows that happening.

Spiders have many uses for silk: drop lines to make quick escapes or a tightrope for traveling without touching the ground. They weave it into sacs in which they or their offspring can overwinter. Some surround themselves with sticky trip lines to alert them to prey nearby. Others create silk-lined burrows or nests. They also use them for flying! Baby spiderlings and some small adults produce a silk sail to float off to a new location, as seen in the experiment being conducted in this YouTube video. This dispersal procedure is called “ballooning.”

About half of all spiders do make webs . The other half don’t make capture webs at all, but rather hunt their prey in a variety of different ways. My photographer friends and I found a few of both weavers and hunters outside in our parks and in our local yards and gardens. So please, summon your most adventurous self and discover what we saw and learned. It’s another intriguing, new aspect of a walk in our parks.

The Orb Weavers, the Fanciest Web Creators

The web that spelled “Terrific!” in E.B. White’s famous children’s book, Charlotte’s Web, was shaped like an orbweaver’s web. Orbweavers use a wheel design, either vertically or horizontally. Sometimes it takes the form of a pie-shaped half-wheel in the corner of a door or wall, like Charlotte’s web did in the barn door where she met Wilbur.

Constructing those Amazing Orbweaver Webs

Female orb-weaving spiders do the weaving of their webs. She begins by making an anchor line, releasing silk into the air until it sticks to another surface. She then crosses it, strengthening and covering it with non-sticky silk, which she also also uses for the frame and radial lines, creating the spokes on a wheel. This non-sticky part of the web provides her with a way to easily move around the web while working on its basic structure.

That done, she rests for a few minutes and apparently switches to sticky silk for the capture part of the web. She uses a special third claw on her foot and the hairy tufts at the bottom of her legs to prevent her from sticking to her own web. She circles between the web’s radial lines, moving from the center outward, releasing silk and attaching it at multiple points, making as many as a thousand connections. She also tests each thread to be sure they are sufficiently taut to hold a snagged insect. Empty space is often left at the center of a spider’s web, providing a way for the spider to move quickly to the opposite side of the web when an insect lands. She then settles in at the center with her “head” downward to wait for telltale tremors in the web. (A spider’s “head ” is a combination of the head and thorax and is called a cephalothorax, or prosoma.)

The whole process of making the web takes about an hour and she remakes or repairs it every day. Whew! During my research for the blog, I found a nice 4-minute live-action video from the BBC on this process if you have the time. Now on to the spiders themselves!

[A Note on Common Names: You may know a different name for a spider than the one I used here. For this blog, I followed the approach of the author of the Princeton Field Guide, Sarah Rose, and generally used the common name “accepted” by The American Arachnological Society.]

Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata)

The Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata) constructs a large web in concentric circles. They’re easy to see on a dewy morning because they’re usually situated east-west so that the dark underside of the spider can warm in the morning sun.

That squiggly string in the left photo above is called a stabilimentum and is made from dense silk. Science isn’t quite sure about its purpose. It may attract insects, it may make the web more visible to creatures who might break the web. Depending on how it’s placed, it may camouflage the spider from predators or help stabilize the web.

While Jarred was taking the photo, the spider started pumping her web, making it pulse in and out. What a surprise! I later learned that this may be a warning to intruders like us, or the movement may more easily ensnare insects in the sticky web. She may also be making herself a moving target to confuse a hungry bird. Quite a surprise to both of us! This short video that Jarred took shows the action well .

Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)

It’s tricky at first to distinguish the large Yellow Garden Spider from the Banded Garden Spider. Both pump their webs, spin their silk in concentric circles and produce a zigzag stabilimentum. Both arrange their eight legs into four sets of two, making an “X” in the middle of the web. And then both sit with their “heads” facing downward, waiting for unwitting prey to land in the sticky threads. But the yellow and black patterns of the Yellow Garden Spider differ from the Banded Garden Spiders, and the Banded species often builds webs near other Banded spiders. Jarred and I found many in close proximity at Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park. The Yellow Garden Spider tends to appear alone, except for her much smaller male which may make a smaller web near the female.

According to Wikipedia, a male Yellow Garden Spider attracts the female by plucking at strands on her web, but keeps a silk drop line ready if she mistakes him for dinner! After the male mates with her, he dies and then occasionally is eaten by the female! Can’t waste food in nature, I guess. Some other species of male spiders bring a food gift to the female before mating or try to wind their silk around her legs when approaching her to avoid their demise!

Aaron Carroll also shared a short video of a female Yellow Garden spider wrapping up an insect. Spiders eat by biting their victim to stun it and then wrapping it in silk for a later meal.

Shamrock Orbweaver (Araneus trifolium)

The females of this plump, colorful spider can actually show up in a variety of shades. The abdomen can be creamy white, yellowish, brown, a deep purple red or only occasionally green, despite its common name, Shamrock. They can also change color and some researchers think that, like chameleons, they camouflage themselves by changing to match their environment. They’re found in low shrubby areas and meadows. Their webs often feature a “retreat” at the side made from a curled leaf – evidently a place to rest or hide until they can scurry out to wrap up their prey.

Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona crucifera)

This scary looking character was sitting in the middle of the side door to our garage one autumn day. She was right where the field guides said she’d be, on a human structure near an outside light. She’s a nocturnal spider so I must have left a light on, because it looks like she’s wrapped up a sizable moth. Her web is always large, up to two feet, but she builds a new one each night after rolling up the old one and eating it. Sources tell me there’s a lot protein in all that silk. Many other spiders do the same. I left her alone and she was gone the next morning.

Not all orbweavers are large and colorful, but they are tiny miracles of their own. You met the little Castleback Orbweaver above. Here are some photos of another very small orbweaver with a spiky back that Jarred spotted on our walk – the Starbellied Orbweaver (Acanthepeira stellata). It was so tiny that Jarred had to put his hand behind it to make it visible in a photo. This one protected herself from the perceived threat of Jarred and I by pulling all her legs under her shell-like spiked abdomen. At iNaturalist, I found a picture of one walking so we could to see what it looked like when it was more relaxed!

Here are three other small Orbweavers that I put in a slideshow so you could see them a bit larger.

The Sheet Web Weavers – Makers of Bowls, Doilies and Retreats

The Sheet Weaver’s web is not as complicated as the Orbweaver’s. It’s recognizable in almost every field in our parks. Watch for a fine mesh, non-sticky web strung between two upright stems, or a white sheet web in your lawn. The tiny spider generally hangs beneath the sheet and, like the Orchard Webweaver, bites through the sheet to stun its prey. Then it scrambles up onto the sheet to wrap and store its next meal. So Jarred again took a super photo of a tiny spider that I could crop and sharpen. It’s a Bowl-and-Doily Sheet Weaver (Frontinella pyramitela).

On the spider walk, we also saw a neat hole in the deep grass edged in sheet web. (See below right.) A large spider had scrambled into it before we got a good look or a photo. When I sent my MSU mentor, Gary Parsons, a photo of the hole, he said that it was definitely a retreat made by a spider. He wasn’t sure which species made this hole, but the most likely candidate was some species of Grass Spider (genus Agelenidae), a genus which creates such retreats to hide, rest or quickly dart out of in pursuit of prey.

Later I later sent him a photo of an unidentified spider that I’d found in our home. He said that it appeared to be a particular Grass Spider (Agelenopsis pennsylvanica) and that her abdomen was so swollen that she probably was about to lay eggs! (I was glad that I’d carefully taken her back outside!) They evidently often enter buildings in the fall. He couldn’t, of course, say if the hole that Jarred and I discovered was created by that species. The silk is nonsticky but vibrations on the sheet web attached to it alert the spider of a possible meal. So here is the Grass Spider and the retreat hole, but which species of spider lurked inside remains a mystery. I wonder if you’ve ever seen these holes in deep grass? For all my tramping about, I had never noticed one!

Hunter Spiders: Not Fancy Web Weavers, but Ones with a Variety of Hunting Techniques

Hunter spiders go after their prey in a variety of ways. Some can run quickly across the ground. Others stage an ambush, waiting quietly on a flower or plant and then leap out to capture their prey. Some hide out of sight in holes or inside folded leaves and then jump out as prey gets close, while others simply camouflage themselves and wait until an insect lands nearby. Some, as you’ll see, can walk on water or even dive to hunt their dinner. None of them bother with weaving ornate webs, but they do use silk in a variety of ways.

Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax)

The audacious little female Bold Jumping Spider above has excellent eyesight! The retinas of those two big eyes actually rotate to follow prey and the six other eyes allow her to see almost 360 degrees around her. Once prey is spotted, she faces it, approaches slowly, crouches and releases a drag line in case she misses her target. Then she pounces, grabs the prey with her front legs and gives it a venomous bite with those ferocious looking fangs which fold up when not in use. I love that my friend Aaron got this little character at the moment she seems to be considering him as potential prey!

According to a great article in Wikpedia, the smaller male is known for doing an elaborate dance in which he “raises his front legs, then flicks his forelegs, and shakes his pedipalps [the food manipulation structures that look like tiny arms] while dancing laterally in a zigzag path. He occasionally pauses in a pose with his legs still raised.” I would dearly love to see that but haven’t found a good YouTube video yet!

Tan Jumping Spider (Platycryptus undatus)

Have you ever seen a cat going after a bird? It always moves slowly toward the target and then pounces! That’s the strategy of the Tan Jumping Spider. This spider can camouflage nicely against tree bark and slip into very narrow spaces under the bark as well. It prefers to hunt on upright surfaces like trees and walls. In winter, each spider overwinters in its own little sac, but in very cold years, this species has been found in large numbers crowded together to make a continuous blanket of sacs to keep themselves warm.

Northern Crab Spider (Mecaphasa asperata)

Believe it or not, this spider is really tiny, less than a quarter inch long. My friend Aaron used a macro lens for both of these photos. The Northern Crab Spider is called an “ambush hunter.” It just waits on a flower for an unwitting insect to land and then grabs it with its long front legs. Blooming flowers seem like an ideal hunting ground for a hunting spider, eh? Here it’s nicely matched with what seems to be the vivid yellow of a Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) bloom. In fact, female crab spiders can change their color from white to yellow, though it’s believed to take days to do it. An NIH study points out that science has not yet determined whether the crab spider “changes colour to match its background or chooses an appropriate flower colour to match its imminent colour change.” Either way, that’s a pretty impressive adaptation!

Six-spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes Triton)

The first time I saw a fishing spider it was sitting quietly on a lilypad at Lost Lake Nature Park, just as in Joan’s photo. These spiders can walk on water, because the weight of the spider’s light body is distributed to all eight wax-covered legs so they don’t break the surface tension. According to the website of the Loyola University Center on Environmental Education, on a windy day, they can glide across the water and will sometimes raise their legs or whole body to catch a bit more wind. They even row across the water by using their second and third pairs of legs as paddles, lifting and dipping. They can’t see well but are highly sensitive to vibration and capture small fish and aquatic insects by sensing their presence through vibrations in the water. Then they simply reach into the water and grab their prey. They sometimes dive in for short periods to escape predation. Next time I see one I’m going to sit down quietly and wait, hoping to see some of this happen!

Woodlouse Hunter Spider (Dysdera crocata)

This non-native spider originated in Europe but is very common in North America now. Its name refers to its favorite food, woodlice, a small, armored crustacean that has lots of other common names like roly-polys, sow-bugs or pill-bugs. Woodlouse spiders have large, curving fangs that they wrap around their prey and then turn them over to bite them in their soft underside. They only bite humans when threatened and though their bite can be painful for a short time, like a bee sting, they generally don’t present any serious danger to humans.

According to Wikipedia, this spider hunts for woodlice in moist places – under logs, planters, bricks, and leaf litter. They hunt at night for all the little creatures that share those spaces like earwigs, millipedes, crickets and silverfish. During the day, they rest in silken retreats in crevices within partially decayed wood. Jarred’s brother William came across this spider and took its photo while weeding. Some folks call them “baked-bean spiders,” which seems appropriate when you first see them, doesn’t it?

So, Can We Tolerate a Few Spiders?

I know spiders fall neatly into the category of “creepy crawlies” and they certainly have figured in lots of horror scenes. (Some of you may remember Shelob from The Lord of the Rings!) And I don’t like being surprised by spiders myself. But really, like all living beings, they’re just doing what’s required in order to survive: eat and pass on their genes to their young, in this case, those ballooning spiderlings. And of course, they’re contributing to the habitat in which they live by being eaten themselves by birds, lizards, fish, snakes, small mammals, some insects and occasionally other spiders. They’re playing their part in the give and take of life.

According to Cornell University’s All About Birds website, the nests of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are “held together by strands of spider silk,” as are the lovely lichen-covered nests of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea). And the same website explains that Northern House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) place spider eggs in their nesting material. Once the spiderlings emerge, they start consuming the nasty little mites that feed on their nestlings – and eventually, I imagine, some of those spiderlings get eaten themselves! So spiders, like the more easily-loved species – beautiful butterflies, and singing birds – play their part in the ongoing-ness of life.

Well, what do you think? I’m just fine living with spiders in my world. It’s a cause for wonder that all these unnoticed beings around us – and we ourselves, for that matter – are here at all. Imagine! Spiders that dance, change color, walk on water, sail across a still pond, or weave intricate designs. As that famous and kindly spider, Charlotte A. Cavatica from Charlotte’s Web told her friend Wilbur, “We’re born, we live a little while, we die.” But she added , “By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.” Isn’t that the truth!

Maybe the skeletons, ghosts, and, yes, spiders of Halloween are meant to remind us that we’re all mortal, but we’re here right now celebrating life with all its glorious complexity. Happy Halloween!