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on she consumes the contents of the insect, leaving the carcass in the web to be removed later.
After spending a day, catching and eating insects a female typically destroys and. eats the interior threads of her web at night and builds a brand new web for the next da^s catch.
By early fall females have mated and begin to lay eggs for the winter. Eggs of Argiope,, spp. are typically placed in large, tan, spherical cocoons attached to plant stems in fields. Hundreds of spiderlings hatch in the fall but. remain inside the cocoon over the winter. They’re cannibalistic and feed on each other prior to emerging in the spring to begin their own webs. In favorable climates, females can survive the winter, but around here the winters are, too cold and the adults die.
Argiope spiders certainly aren’t as threatening as Shelob, nor are they as agree-' able and charming as Charlotte. They pay no atten- ■ tion to us, are not particularly' social, they catch and eat • insects and even each other. Is this good or bad? We don’t ■ know. But we find our’ arachnophobia diminishes the more we watch the daily activ- ■ ities of real spiders.
We welcome your com-' ments on this or anything elsenatural philosophical. Send torappnature@aol.com
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