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September 3, 1998 - In praise of spidersIn praise o spiders strands longlegs Actually vestman s fro one is found a high out most Have you ever walked along a path or through your garden and felt some- thing invisible brush across your face or arms? As you frantically try to wipe off this invisible whatever -it -is you slowly calm FOCUS down and realize ON it is just a spider's strand that you NATURE walked through. by Paul It seems lately $toutenburgh we've experi- enced more and more of these invisible strands of the spider family and so I thought it might be interesting to see just who is respon- sible for them. Looking up information on spiders, I found the majority in the United States fall into 11 families. They go under such common names as trap door, tube weavers, tunnel weavers, irregular web weavers, cobweb weavers, orb weavers, crooked and thread weavers along with crab spider, running spider and jumping spider. Hearing these common names, you probably can re- member some of the species like the jumping spider. I've seen them often in the garden as they lie in wait for their prey in flowers. Just disturb them and they jump away in little hops. Every housewife knows the cobweb spider that hangs its threaded trap in the cor- ner of ceilings. And who hasn't mar- veled at the orb web spider? Orb web spiders build beautiful , concentric - circled webs 3# that string up to catch any s 5 unsuspecting flying in- sect. We see them best one 4 foggy days, when the web ,' a becomes a spectacle of glittering tiny jewels as the sun comes out. The droplets sparkle like sequins on a fairy's gown. I see the funnel weavers on misty mornings in the pasture up back where their dew -laden mats and tunnels were woven into silken traps to catch pass- ing insects. All these delightful forms of weaving by spiders have one pur- pose in mind and that is to entrap their prey. Once the unsuspecting insect steps on or hits the thread of the web, a vibration is sent along the support strands to the central nerve center where the predator rests. Then it is time to act. The spider runs along the dry support strands to where the insect is struggling to get free from the flexi- ble, sticky cross strands of the web. The web is so designed that these sticky radial parts of the web stretch lice rubber bands so that the struggling insect, in its attempt to break free, hits other sticky webs and gets further entangled. Now all the spider has to do is wrap up its entangled visitor, repair the web if necessary and wait for another caller. The spider will partake of its new -found meal whenever hunger strikes. Spiders make use of their silk in many ways. Most obvious, of course, is in the wide variety of webs or snares they make to entangle their prey. Yet other spiders, like the jumping spider or crab spider, do not make webs as we know them but use their silk for lining their burrows and nests, while others use their silk to make egg sacs to protect the young until hatching time. As mentioned earlier, many of us have walked into the invisible of silk when walking about. it's one way the spider gets fr place to another. Usually from point the spider spins out a thread and lets it drift with the wind until it hits an object such as a branch or twig, where it then sticks to the object. Now the spi- der tightens it up and uses it as a bridge so it can climb to its new location. It's this silken strand's bridge we so often walk into as we move about the yard or through the woods. A more remarkable variation of this feat is when the spider wants to leave the neighborhood and uses its silken thread as a means of transportation. This is done in basically the same way as the spider creates a bridge. It spins out a thread that is taken up by the air currents that lift it to greater heights, then the spider is merely carried aloft by the silken thread through the air to who knows where. It's a risky business but it works. We know these flights carry spiders long distances, for they have been found floating far out at sea with Mr. or Mrs. Spider still clinging to them. The aeronautic spiders, or flying spi- ders as they are commonly called, are most abundant during the warm autumn day. It's during this time you can see these streamers hanging from fences, tree limbs, posts, tops of grass- es or even just floating in the air. I found a bit of poetry written by Hogg that tells of the spider's 1 flight: "sailing mid the golden air yt in skiffs of yielding gos- samere" ' Imagine this tiny tidbit of a spider waiting for an unknown sig- nal that conditions were just right for flying, standing on the end of a blade of grass, spinning out its ultra -light web that's taken up by the air currents; fur- ther and further it lifts its silken thread until the spider feels the urge to take off. Then it floats through the air to its new and unknown home. Pretty remarkable, I call it. Another order of spider that most of us are familiar with is the daddy- or har- pider. It through - of the central and eastern United States and is fairly common around the home. It is easily recog- nized by its extremely long legs and pill - shaped body. Actually, like all spiders, they are most beneficial in getting rid of pesky insects, par- ticularly aphids. We're told they do not suck the juices out of their prey like most spiders do, but rather eat them by bits and pieces. Although they are quite large, they are per- fectly harmless as any schoolboy knows who has picked one up and teased the girls with it. How they would squeal and carry on. Someone has calculated, and I'm not sure it's that important, that if man had legs as long as a daddy - longlegs, he'd be walking on 40- foot -long legs. These daddy - longlegs hunt mostly at night, taking to hiding in crevices or behind boards and debris during the day. When winter comes along most species of "daddies" die. The only way the clan is carried on is through the eggs the female lays in the ground in the fall. Next spring the young hatch, grow and molt. Like most insects they, too, shed their skin as they get bigger. They grow basically like our blue -claw crabs grow, by splitting their casings open and emerging a bit larger than September 3, 1998 • The Suffolk Times • 9A Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh This big black - andyeilow garden spider often startles us In our garden or other out -of- the -wind places. Like most spiders It Is not poisonous and helps In keeping down the many flying Insects that bother man. Once the Insect Is entangled In the spider's web Its fate Is sealed. their cast -off skeletons. We usually don't see this transformation take place and are usually only familiar with the adult stage of development. Spiders are usually harmless — the exception being the black widow spi- der and the brown recluse. Both can give a painful bite that should be watched carefully for complications. These are the exceptions and are not often encountered. It is important to remember what the spider basically does for us is help get rid of unwanted insects. 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