Orbweavers

"Tis the season for big hairy spiders. I like them; find spiders intriguing, actually. Peak numbers and diversity seem to reach a crescendo in fall, about this time, and a lot of the cool jumbos are easily found now.

Nighttime is the right time for spider-seeking. Most of these eight-legged arachnids are nocturnal, and stay holed up and out of sight during the day. Come the blackness of night, and they emerge to tend their webs, capture prey, and do the things that spiders do. This

bruiser is a Furrow Orbweaver, Larinioides cornutus.

This one had built its web on a spider-rich stop sign. That hole to its right is one of the perforations in the sign post to which the sign is attached. Bet you'd find all kinds of goodies hiding inside there during the day! I've gotten a bit close here - like two inches away with my macro lens - and she has assumed a defensive posture.

There are two common Neoscona orbweavers in Ohio, and this is one: Variable Orbweaver, Neoscona crucifera. We're looking at her underside, through the web. You've probably seen these large thick-bodied spiders in their big, circular webs. I had a beautiful specimen build a large web on my porch two summers ago. During the day, I could look up under a certain shingle, and there she'd be, all eight eyes glaring at me from the shadows. Come dark, and out she'd come, patching up the web and awaiting some hapless victim.

There is something hardwired into our systems that cause us to fear spiders; or we are taught that fear early on. That's too bad. Most are completely harmless, and all are remarkable silk-spinners that rank high among nature's premier architects. With a close look, many spiders are quite showy as well.