Spiderlings

Inspiration for a blog occasionally drifts in as a distraction.  In this case I was working on my laptop in the living room and occasionally noticed a pale floater across the screen.  Blinking didn't move it and I realized that it was truly a "floater" but one outside my eyeball.  A spiderling was swinging from an invisible silk strand hanging down from the ceiling 10 feet above.

Once in a bug box, I could measure it at 2 mm body length and it posed ferociously for pictures.  What little I can see of the eyes suggests it might be a wolf or fishing spider but we will never know as it is now back out in nature where the hunting is better.

Orb weavers in the woods

I was already planning on writing about spiderlings.  Walking in the oak-hickory forest last week I noticed a small speck of bright orange under a sassafras.  It was the size of my finger tip but once disturbed it was full of life.  Based on its location, I suspect it is this year's class of orb weavers, scheduled to hit me in the face again while hiking next month.  You can see the action in the nest in this video.

Spider nest in a folded leaf

Opened leaf nest

Many spiders will create their silk egg sack in a protected space such as a folded up leaf.  I have even found egg cases in old hollow oak apple galls.

Black widow spiderlings

This black widow spider was tending her egg case when we lifted up the ground cover.   She seemed to charge at my camera in this video but that was probably just coincidence.  I took the egg case home and filmed their coming out party.

More details on the life cycle of spiders are at this link.