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Tinybu88les8
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Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:36 pm
Location: Southern California

Theres a really neat spider in my backyard. Pics.

I discovered this spider the other night and took a few pictures. These were takin at night so the flash from my camera made the spider glow...which is neat. Anyway.. I'm going to keep an eye on this little fella to see if he catches anything. I'm anxious. :P I will update with more pictures if anything becomes of this spider. :D Nature is pretty awesome sometimes.

[url=https://img156.imageshack.us/I/img1623d.jpg/][img]https://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3184/img1623d.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img34.imageshack.us/I/img1619e.jpg/][img]https://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4668/img1619e.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img193.imageshack.us/I/img1613d.jpg/][img]https://img193.imageshack.us/img193/426/img1613d.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img193.imageshack.us/I/img1625k.jpg/][img]https://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6758/img1625k.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img43.imageshack.us/I/img1614k.jpg/][img]https://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3627/img1614k.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img22.imageshack.us/I/img1618ex.jpg/][img]https://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7743/img1618ex.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img171.imageshack.us/I/img1620c.jpg/][img]https://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6446/img1620c.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://img12.imageshack.us/I/img1621s.jpg/][img]https://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2876/img1621s.jpg[/img][/url]

Pretty cool.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Great photos!
You're in California so I've no idea if this is the same kind of brown garden spider (don't know the actual name) we get around here, but if it is, these ladies weave gigantic webs in Autumn sometimes. The other day, I was about to walk between the car on the driveway and the garage, and, seriously, A PERSON-SIZED web was stretched between them. :shock: I almost walked right into it -- had a visions of me stuck in a spiderweb like in some horror movie, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spiderman, etc... should have taken a picture of it. :lol:

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, autumn is spider season. I also just missed walking in to a very large (though not quite person sized!) spider web the other day.

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hendi_alex
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We have lots of large brown, grey, and black orb weavers at night. Usually by early next morning their webs have been recycled and the spider is hiding away. As children we always called those 'woods' spiders, because you will often see the large webs stretching between trees in the woods. We have quite a few here because our yard is heavily wooded and the forest comes right up to the edge of the maintained yard.

We also have many, many spiders, that we mistakenly called crab spiders for years. They look like little crabs with many points on their exoskeletons. But what we have is really a variety of Spiny-Bellied Orb Weavers. We simply can't walk the yard without running into one or more of the webs, often taking the spider with us.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1979/bgimage
Last edited by hendi_alex on Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Tinybu88les8
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hendi_alex- If I ran into a spider web like that and that spider was stuck to me as well... I would FREAK out. Thats one creepy lookin spider! I'm okay lookin at them and being near but ON me?! NO THANKS!

On another note...you said something about autumn spiders webs expiring during the day? Well...I noticed this spider a couple nights ago but yesterday when I woke up and went to check on it the web was gone! I went straight to my boyfriend and was like "you better not have torn that web down!" I was so annoyed for a minute because I specially told him to leave it alone so I can watch her and take more pictures. But sure enough last night her web was back. Thats an awfully lot of work!

a0c8c
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Location: Austin, TX

Most spiders only keep their webs for 24 hours, and then move on. We get a ton of those spiders, and they stretch every gap imaginable. I walk around with a long stick waving in front of me at night otherwise I'd run into alot of them.

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Tinybu88les8
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Location: Southern California

oh wow. I didnt know that. Thats very interesting. Why do they do this? Do they usually change locations or stay in the same spot? I checked on the spider again and her web is gone. Shes still hiding up there tho.

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hendi_alex
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After a night the web gets damaged, plus the spider has to hide during the day time, or would get eaten. I think that the nocturnal orb weavers eat their web to recycle the material for next night's web.

a0c8c
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Location: Austin, TX

In hot places like Texas, the spider won't survive the heat of summer, and thus hides in bushes or other cooler places. During that time, a web can easily get destroyed, so why bother coming back. Or like Alex said, some eat their webs knowing it might not be there tommorrow.

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Rose White
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rainbowgardener wrote:Yeah, autumn is spider season. I also just missed walking in to a very large (though not quite person sized!) spider web the other day.
I get spider webs so often in my woods that in the morning I walk to my car with my arm reaching up in front of my face. 'Eating' a spiderweb is not my favorite breakfast! :lol:



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