Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Tiny Spider Update

     Thanks to an anonymous commenter, it appears that the critters spreading barely-visible nets in the medium-height grass of the back yard here at Roseholme Cottage are dwarf sheetweb spiders -- and I should be flattered they stick around: "These tiny spiders (usually 3 mm or less) commonly balloon even as adults and may be very numerous in a given area on one day, only to disappear the next."  Yes, they're airship spiders!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only you could make steampunk spiders feel at home. -Ed.

Guffaw in AZ said...

Dirigible or blimp variety?

gfa

fillyjonk said...

Yup, I was gonna ask if they were ballooning.

This xkcd comic is one I've actually used in one of my classes: https://xkcd.com/1415/

Sadly, I seem to find it funnier than my students do. (also, the very end of Charlotte's Web features her "children" ballooning to new homes)

Jennifer said...

Oh nifty!

Keads said...

Great!

Roberta X said...

One kind of these little spiders spins "cup and saucer" webs. Another sort makes domes! These just put up nets.

Jess said...

I'm thinking your post explains the tiny spiders I'd see, while working offshore. I don't know where they were from, but when conditions were right, the webs would hang like shreds of cloth on everything.