Where’s Spider Uno?

I returned home from a few days of road travel and quickly checked to see if the shack was okay, it was. And I expected to see my three stalwart spiders still hanging on their respective webs; Dos and Tres were, but the oldest of the three – Uno – was nowhere to be found.

It sounds strange to be sentimental about a single spider. But since March I have been showering while she was always somewhere outside on the  screen in the window. I watched in amazement as she went through an entire life cycle. [The image shown is just before she created and filled the initial two egg sacks.]

Having read that Argiope aurantia only lives a couple of years, I knew as the months went by that I could also be chronicling her demise: cool weather brings this about.

The window is now clear of any sign of her web; it is as if a valued tenant left the apartment clean without saying goodbye. The overnight temperature is still in the high sixties.

She did her job, though, attested by four silk sacks left behind; being prolific is one of Nature’s ways of maximizing the creation of another generation.

According to my readings it isn’t until next spring that any offspring will result if predators, such as birds, don’t get them first.

The other two resident Argiopes – Dos and Tres – are still here. The latter I believe is the youngest, since she was the smallest as spring started. A novice, she has one dangling pod.

As previously reported, Dos is really a character. Whereas Uno was unflappable and wove a tight, precise web, Dos exhibits more of a Charlie Brown’s Pig Pen personality. She randomly strings a single filament to anywhere she thinks (can judgment be instinct?) it will further anchor the web; this includes to the two spotlights near the top. It really looks a mess.

So ends the latest chapter in the life of the Spiders. Watch for the next installment soon.