The spider(s) that ate Texas

This awesome photo is the subject of much discussion among entomologists lately. (larger photo here) lotsa webs!

Is it from a massive dispersal of spiderlings?
Or is it part of a communal web?

Many people don’t realize that a few (fairly uncommon) spiders actually live together in a group. It’s not like ants and bees–all the spiders in a shared web reproduce.

Social spiders all cooperate to build and maintain the web, capture prey, and take care of babies.

To learn more about social spiders:

EDITED TO ADD: verdict is in EDITED AGAIN 8/31/07: Verdict is out again. Now they think it’s a mass hatching event of Tetragnathidae (Long Jawed Orb Weavers)

Southeastern Social Cobweb Spider; Anelosimus studiosus (Hentz, 1850);Family Theridiidae – Cobweb Spiders

EDITED TO ADD: How could I have missed this one!? Kingdom of the Spiders, starring William Shatner. (Thanks to a commenter at Zooillogix for pointing that out.)

EDITED EVEN YET AGAIN TO ADD: In response to a question about whether social spiders eat and re-spin their webs nightly as some large garden spiders do, I found out: “Anelosimus studiosus adds to its webs over the season but does not eat it, at least detectably. And so much debris accumulates in the webs over time that consumption and re-spinning would be detectable! ” (8/30/07)

EDITED EVEN ONE MORE TIME TO ADD: Looks like the experts are still arguing back and forth about the source of the web. They do agree it was produced by spiders, and more specimens are being collected. (8/31/07)
EDITED THE LAST TIME TO SAY: final update here.
This entry was written by Bug Girl and posted on August 30, 2007 at 6:48 am and filed under Entomology, Random, Science. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

18 Comments

  1. laelaps
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 10:04 am | Permalink

    Yikes! And I thought the tent caterpillars this year were bad…

  2. factician
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 10:28 am | Permalink

    That’s awesome! How do I get some of those to build a web around my yard? Oh, maybe that’s a bad idea until my son gets to be a little older…

  3. BobApril
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 10:53 am | Permalink

    It reminds me of the final pull-back scene in Kingdom of the Spiders…pardon me while I go buy out my local store’s supply of insecticide.

  4. Warren
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 11:44 am | Permalink

    Oh coooool. With a little tweaking we could have a whole new textile industry.

  5. rfguy
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 11:47 am | Permalink

    Would this also be a colony of social spiders, or something different?

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/spiderweb/

  6. Bug Girl
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 11:59 am | Permalink

    rfguy, yes, those look like social spiders.
    That is from BC, right? There was a giant web reported there a while back.

  7. seedsaside
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

    That’s net! Oops, I mean, neat!

  8. Arnosium Upinarum
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 6:52 pm | Permalink

    Whoa! Amazing!

    What can it possibly be about this particular location that concentrated enough insects (food) to sustain such a tremendous spider convention? Those fellows in the background of the picture don’t seem to be bothered by any biting insects – maybe because they’ve all been eaten already? One wonders if such a prodigious spider colony can persist for long after the nutrition supply runs out…

  9. Adam
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 7:29 pm | Permalink

    Any science fiction fans out there who have read John Wyndam’s “Web”? It was published by his estate so is not likely as familiar as Day of the Triffids, etc. This article provides an excellent visual of scenes in the novel

  10. Arm Jerker J.
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 9:44 pm | Permalink

    I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I didn’t hear about this. I’m behind…truly amazing.

  11. John Mruzik
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 10:11 pm | Permalink

    Do the spiders eat and replace their web daily, as non-social spider do?

  12. norilyn
    Posted August 30, 2007 at 11:01 pm | Permalink

    Interesting factoid you got here!:-)

  13. Bug Girl
    Posted August 31, 2007 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    John, it was such a good question, I put the answer in the post :)

  14. Brian Thompson
    Posted August 31, 2007 at 12:05 pm | Permalink

    Good to see an entertaining blog post about this. I’ve linked to your piece from my skeptical news hub, http://www.amateurscientist.org

  15. tina
    Posted December 7, 2007 at 2:02 pm | Permalink

    Cool post:)!

  16. Texas Newspapers
    Posted January 25, 2008 at 3:38 am | Permalink

    Hi..just stopping by to say a Happy New Year…interesting post there, and i’ve bookmarked this blog too…keep up the good job ;)

  17. shaynen
    Posted July 6, 2008 at 8:00 am | Permalink

    I have a question.I had 3 black widows in a tank and I found egg sacks in my yard from the black widows there was about 7 or 9 and I put all the egg sacks in the tank and all the black widows and one day I went to feed them and all the the eggs hatched I still have them and I dont know what to do.because if I open it I’ll probably be dead really fast.

  18. Bug Girl
    Posted July 6, 2008 at 10:25 am | Permalink

    Shaynen–it is helpful if you use punctuation. Just a suggestion.

    First, unless you are immunosuppressed, or a small child, you won’t be killed by a black widow bite. You will be in a lot of pain, and feel pretty bad, but you won’t die.

    Second, quit screwing around with black widows if you don’t know what you are doing! Sheesh.


9 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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    [...] Bug girl has the explanation. [...]

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