January 4, 2005 – web weather

The recent rains over the holidays revealed a hidden world. On most days these dry bushes by the North Marsh do not give much indication of life, but the rains reveal how busy the spiders have been all along.


Here's another collection of rain-revealed webs on the South Marsh Loop Trail.

Some of these constructions are pretty elaborate affairs.

At the center of many orb webs you will see...something in there. You might think it's mummified prey, but if you look carefully you'll see it's often a leaf.

Here's a closer look at such a spider hut. It looks like the spider has built a chamber out of who knows what – dirt and spiderweb? – against the inside curve of an oak leaf. You can just see the spider entering this chamber from the bottom (two legs sticking out).