I don’t want to say that life is a little slow in the House of Romance, but we’ve recently spent some evening moments marveling at the return of the Orb.
For those not up on the seasonal changes in domestic life, the Orb is a common garden spider in most places in North America (Argiope aurantia). It works by night, weaving a large web with characteristic cross-strands of silk, and hides by day. We see them most commonly in late summer on our front porch.
The orb that has taken up residence in our eaves the last few days is especially large. Its diameter spread-out, in full web-weaving and insect-consuming mode, is about an inch and a half. (Previous orb visitors to our porch have had diameters anywhere from the size of a quarter to the size of a dollar coin.)
Its remarkable to watch the single-mindedness of its web-weaving, the speed with which it gets to a trapped insect and wraps it in silk, and how deliberately it devours the insect.
Given the baseball blackout we’ve been suffering through this month, the Orb is the best entertainment ticket in town right now!
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Fascinating! I’ve been wondering what kind of spider I photographed a couple years ago on my porch and I think you’ve just answered that for me. What do you think?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oginski/sets/72157624999765727/
Hmmm. Sure looks like the same kind of spider to me. (Nice shots, by the way!). Here’s a little more on the type and prevalence of the garden orb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_%28spider%29