This awesome photo is the subject of much discussion among entomologists lately. (larger photo here)
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:
- News story from Texas about this web
- Great Q and A with an expert on social spiders
- Neat article about social spitting spiders at the California Academy of Science–with video!
- A news story about the research of a Cornell entomologist who works on social spiders
- Another photo of a social spider web can be found here.
- High resolution photo of the Texas web
- Video of the Texas Web
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)
[…] Bug girl has the explanation. […]
Yikes! And I thought the tent caterpillars this year were bad…
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…
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.
[…] (Explanation of this photo here). […]
Oh coooool. With a little tweaking we could have a whole new textile industry.
Would this also be a colony of social spiders, or something different?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/spiderweb/
rfguy, yes, those look like social spiders.
That is from BC, right? There was a giant web reported there a while back.
[…] on Bug Girl’s Blog (where would I be without you?) as the work of the Southeastern Social Cobweb Spider, the web is […]
That’s net! Oops, I mean, neat!
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…
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
I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I didn’t hear about this. I’m behind…truly amazing.
[…] spider community – in Texas, of course Bug Girl has all the details — spiders being closer to her blog’s core topic – but this news is just about 90 […]
Do the spiders eat and replace their web daily, as non-social spider do?
Interesting factoid you got here!:-)
John, it was such a good question, I put the answer in the post :)
Good to see an entertaining blog post about this. I’ve linked to your piece from my skeptical news hub, http://www.amateurscientist.org
[…] August 31st, 2007 Now this is just too damned creepy for […]
[…] Learn all about it from Bug Girl […]
[…] This scares the crap out of me A giant communal spider web was found in Texas of all places. Chalk that up as another reason to never move there: insane spider webs. […]
[…] on Bug Girl’s Blog (where would I be without you?) as the work of the Southeastern Social Cobweb Spider, the web is […]
Cool post:)!
[…] an aside, I found something really groovy. A massive spider web in Texas. (More info at Bug Girl’s Blog ) Seems that others have also made the connection with the ending of this […]
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 ;)
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.
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.