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:

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

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  2. 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)

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

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  4. 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.

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