Orb Spidddddddeeeeeerrrrrrrr

The orb spider originated during the Jurassic age, which was 200-140 million years ago. They are the most common group of builders of spiral webs in gardens, fields, and forrest. They have 8 similar eyes, legs (hairy or spiny), and no stridulating organs. There are over 10,000 species and make up about 25% of spider diversity.

Orb spiders are three clawed builders of flat and spiral webs. They build webs by floating a line into the wind and onto another surface, then drops another line forming a "Y" shape. The rest of the web is used with non sticky silk, and finally finished with a sticky silk spiral. The spiders kill prey by stunning them with a bite, then wrapping it in silk. If the prey is poisonous then the silk wrapping is first then it is bitten. The orb spiders build a new web each day. They eat the old web, rest for an hour, then build a new web in the general location of the previous web. Some orb spiders don't even make webs at all.

Today I went for a hike in the forrest and saw at least 5 orb spiders. They are also known as a banana spider. I learned that the female spiders are bigger than the males, and that the females vary in size. The spider's web reflects off the light making it easy for bugs to fly into it. We saw parts of lizards hanging from the webs. For an experiment we threw 2 insects into the web. First, we threw a worm into the web, but there was no reaction from the spider. Next, we threw a 1 1/2 inch cockroach into the web. The spider immediately attacked it. The spider big the cockroach, which stunned it. Then it wrapped it in silk, then dangled it from the top of the web. Overall I learned a lot about the orb spider, and found them really fascinating!

Link to orb video (cut and paste link into web browser)

http://m.youtube.com/?client=mv-google&rdm=mcetapbk#/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=GfS0thpJ1lo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGfS0thpJ1lo%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player

By: Alexandra Beisel