Belle

I mentioned earlier that I was wanting to get a good picture of Sister Sue or Big Spider so you could see just how lovely and multi-shaded these beauties are.

Neither of them felt cooperative; in fact, Sister Sue has moved higher than ever, but Belle moved in a couple of days ago and she was kind enough to pose at eye level. Isn't she stunning?

The Return of Big Spider!

Big Spider finishing her web.

It turns out Big Spider hadn't died or disappeared. She just moved across the way a bit to a tree, and I didn't know to look. She is only visible from a couple of angles now, and I'm sure the tree bounces a lot less than the clothesline. That shook every time someone slammed a car door nearby, and we're not exactly a car-free neighborhood.

She's still really skittish, though, and careful about the light. Her web is up much later than Sister Sue's, and, even on a non-shaky web, she disappears almost as soon as we're out in the morning.

Big Spider's hideaway.

Yesterday Evening: Big Spider Gone?

Last night wasn't a big spider-hunting night for me. I checked for Stretch but couldn't find him; judging by the zigzags on the 23rd, he may have wandered out of the yard all together in search of a mate. Big Sal, also, was absent. Given her reappearance last time, though, I'm not ready to write her off as gone just yet. Maybe she was simply full after her morning bee and decided not to build another web that day (Do spiders do that? I don't know).

I spotted Speckles, or at least one of her sisters, and admired a tiny little spider spinning in the bottom of one rosebush. I'm not going to try for an ID on him because I couldn't get a good look at her back or abdomen.

Big Spider may be gone. When I came home, she'd spun two of her anchor lines, but that's as far as the web ever got. I saw her out on it around midnight, but haven't spotted her since. She really wasn't in the mood to pose, either.

Has she gone wherever spiders go when the fall is over? (Dead?). Why are there more spiders in the fall than any other time? Or, at least, why are they so much more in evidence? Why haven't I ever asked that before?

Big Spider being frugal

Big Spider usually spins immaculate new webs. I thought maybe that was just what her kind of spider does, but it turns out it's probably because she anchors her web on the clothesline and it's usually destroyed by nightfall. So, on September 23,  I was very careful when hanging out the laundry and left the old web in place. Sure enough, she used the old frame for her new web. In fact, she didn't even bother to destroy the ragged outer edges.

It saved her a lot of time; she had this web done at least an hour earlier than her usual webs.

Big Spider: Taken Sept 22 2010

She's incredible, isn't she?

Starring: Big Spider

Big Spider up at her starting point.

Big Spider is the star of the show. She's the first spider I have watched spin her web, and the first one I've looked at consistently over a long period of time. She spins a massive web just overhead every night--low enough to see, but not so low everyone ends up walking through it. She's frustratingly hard to spot during the day. I know she's there somewhere up near the corner, but I never have seen her before she starts.

She begins making her web every evening around 7. A few nights ago, though, she didn't start until 8:30. I don't know why, but I do know I was worried about her. I never would have expected to worry about a spider.

Big Spider moving between lines.

. According to two of the books I looked at, it is supposed to take about an hour for an orb weaver, but Big Spider takes closer to three. I think it may be because she comes down from the roof and anchors at least two of her main lines on our clothesline, so she almost never has anything left to reuse the next day, not even as a guide. Also, probably because of the distance,  it takes her an hour or so of swinging and resting before she has all her lines in place. It's very strange watching her just after dusk when her lines are invisible. She seems to be walking through the air.

Big Spider walking through the air.

Right now, I'm relying on the people at bugguide.net (I have mentioned before that they are awesome) to help me with identifying the spiders, and I haven't been able to get a clear enough picture for them to identify positively, but the consensus is that she is probably a Neoscona crucifera. I'll keep trying to get a good, clear image of her for more complete identification.

You'll probably see a lot of pictures of her, in any case. Like I said, she's the star of the show.