There was a lot going on between my upstairs window and screen on July 13
th.
While mama spider sipped from a bee packaged like a gold and black box juice, her ivory spiderlings emerged from their translucent egg sac to stretch their many legs in the sunlight.
It’s not the best photo, due to the Scotch plaid effect of the intervening screen, but you get the idea. What you can't see are the two additional sacs in the web above, outside the photo’s frame.
(Actually, in another photo the screen’s wavy grid pattern
is the best part, but this shot better portrays nature at work. Merely click on the image to enlarge it.)
Another thing you can’t see is my looming face, squinting in fascination.
Today, eleven days later, the mother spider rests upside-down, waiting, her brindled abdomen aimed right at me. I can even see her spinnerets. (Pardon me.) No bee, no spiderlings. Directly above her, only one shadowy egg sac remains, promising as a piñata.
The photo was taken 7/13/08. Click on image to enlarge. I looked up more facts about spiders, plus had a great tour of glossy spider photos, in The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders.
About an hour ago I went outside to check on the spider waiting at the center of her/his web. The web is suspended between the hanging red impatiens and the peach begonias. As soon as I opened the entryway door, the spider raced under the rim of the flower pot and hid. I stood there until she/he emerged and returned to the web's center. I wasn't sure if the picture would turn out in the dark, but the flash illuminated the web's intricate silvery pattern and the bristly legs of the spider. Patience.
