A few weeks back, Nancy and I were treated to a live production of one of nature’s most amazing shows. We watched a spider at work.
My wife is not afraid of many things. I once saw her try to catch a snake with her bare hands in our goldfish pond. But Nancy is definitely afraid of spiders. If there is one around, she knows about it.
We were sitting on the porch at our rental cottage at Gloucester and Nancy immediately saw the spider at work. It had spun a web near the ceiling and was waiting for results.
We then noticed a bee buzzing around, interested in our drinks, but the bee made the mistake of flying near the web. It got stuck and the spider was on it like white on rice. In seconds, the spider had enclosed the helpless bee in a tomb of silk. It would be her next meal.
Spiders have structures called spinnerets on their abdomen, usually on the underside to the rear. These are the silk-spinning organs. Different species have different numbers of spinnerets, but most have a cluster. At the end of each spinneret is a collection of spigots, nozzle-like structures. A single silk thread comes out of each.
I wasn’t aware of this, but spiders follow certain patterns to construct the design of their webs, depending on the species of the spider. They are fascinating creatures, and I certainly enjoyed this performance, but I’m not sure that Nancy did.