Shimmering webs

On a moist and misty autumnal morning, you are bound to notice myriads of dew-laden webs, particularly as they sparkle in the rays from the rising sun.

Spiders from different families weave different sorts. Some webs are simple sheets, some tangled masses,

while others are beautifully complex, two-dimensional radiating structures. The first two types are true cobwebs (from ‘coppe’, the old English name for a spider), while the last (a typical cartoon web) is just a ‘spider’s web’ 

Our garden spider (Araneus diadematus), or cross spider, is an orb-weaver, the female spinning amazing webs of the third type at night. Every few days she will make a new web in a couple of hours, as the previous one looses its stickiness, but will recycle the old one by eating it. Her web needs about 20m of silk for a span of around 40cm and will weigh less than a thousandth of a gram.

At this time of year she is fat and full of eggs (another name is pumpkin spider), and will wait patiently at the centre of her web or at the edge (while holding on to a signal thread) until she feels the vibration of a stuck fly or other insect, which she will then wrap up for a tasty snack later. She will lay her eggs (500 or so) in a yellow silk sac, her spiderlings emerging next Spring, but staying together in a golden ball until their first moult, and only reaching maturity to continue the cycle the following year.

Links to further information and images

Buglife: garden cross spider

Natural History Museum: spider webs