Spiderbloggers

It is very hard to keep track of individuals on the back door, try as I might. New ones arrive, they move around, while the birds and white-tailed spiders remove them again. But I am sure of Pane-4, who now lives in pane 7. She is as big as any of my mature black house, (B. insignis) other than the second year spiders. She also has her tiny spider in attendance - see left of photo. I have very high hopes of an egg sac! Here's what I can see at the moment:

Interesting visitor on the back door tonight. A wandering male garden orb weaver (Eriophora biapicata). The markings are very variable in this species, and I have seen males like this before. The two humps on the abdomen - and the fact I have a dozen females in the vicinity - convinces me that this is a valid identification. He was on the Badumna web near Pane 7, where my large female shown above now resides. I thought this male orb weaver might have got caught on all the Badumna web, so I tried to rescue him. Wrong again! He ran straight up to the top, across webs, then hung around - literally on a drop line while I watched for about 5 minutes. When I returned from checking out some of my regular spiders a few minutes later, he was gone.

Sad days. I get far too attached to my spiders! Pane-4, who had moved to pane-7, was behaving strangely 4 days ago. She was way out on pane-8. Then the returned to her resting place, but was very restless, often out on her web, in full view of the birds. But none took her. Then she just hung out in full view and stopped. That was two days ago. She didn't move again. BY this morning it was clear that she was quite dead, so we removed her. I have photos, so I'll post them. I can't work out what could have killed her other than trying to molt and failing. There are plenty of others in the door panes. It has been colder - the first cold nights of winter, but she is against the kitchen glass, and hundreds of others are in much colder positions. There was no lack of food - plenty of insects in her web. I have watched her grow, and she hasn't bred. She's not old by Badumna standards. I'll post the photos later so others might have an opinion. I guess spiders have other health problems that we just can't recognise.