Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Coastal BC Spiders: Cross Orbweaver

Cross Orbweaver

The other day I went out to work in my garden and found this Cross Orbweaver spider using my lean-to as its new home.

Lately, I've been seeing more spiders around the cabin and they are a welcome sight. Anything that catches pesky flying insects is a friend of mine.

The Cross Orbweaver (Araneus diadematus) is also known as the Garden Spider. This is a female, distinguished by her large oval abdomen. Males have a smaller, thinner abdomen. 


Cross Orbweave spiders can be found in gardens and fields in many states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada. Females lay up to 800 eggs in a sac near the web from late summer to fall.  After hatching, spiderlings can travel to unexpected locations by "ballooning" through the air on silken threads. I see this quite often on Powell Lake. Landing on the water must make for a rude awakening.


These spiders weave large, vertical orb shaped webs. They either reside near or right in the center of the web. Either way, they are connected by a thread to determine if a meal has landed. An unlikely fact I learned is that the spider usually eats the web at night, and recycles the proteins contained within to create a new web the following day. That's a lot of work!


Here's a tasty meal all wrapped up for consumption. It's hard to tell, but it looks like a yellow jacket. We get a lot of those around the cabin. Can't say that I feel bad about it getting caught. -- Margy

References: www.Spiders.us (online), Post Defiance blog by Katy Evans (online), and Cross Orbweaver at Bugguide.net (online)

16 comments:

  1. Nice post, Margy!
    Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog:)

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  2. Thanks for beautiful pictures as well as a visit to my blog

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    1. That's what I love about link parties. - Margy

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  3. Awesome shot of the spider ~ thanks!

    Wishing you a Happy Weekend coming ~ ^_^

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  4. Aren't spiders amazing??!!!

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  5. lovely and intricate designs... we have them seen in our garden to already, loved it.

    Have a wonderful ABC-day / – week
    ♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (abc-w-team)
    http://melodymusic.nl/19-o/

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    1. I was lucky to get his picture. We've had such rainy, windy weather that he's moved into hiding. - Margy

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  6. I love orb weavers, you got some great photos of her!

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  7. Thank you for this most interesting post about this kind of spiders. I always admire the way they create their webs and sometimes I embellish these webs by spraying them with water in order to take photos of them. Thank you also for your comment about the boulders, interesting to know that there are more of such stone formations all over the world.

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    1. I never thought of that. I love when I see pictures of webs covered in droplets. - Margy

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  8. very creative critter

    ROG, ABCW

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  9. Wow - I had no idea about them eating the web - clever of them and industrious. I love web photos - and always watch for the babies floating about - love that on a bright autumn day.

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    1. I didn't know that either about the webs either until I did the research for the post. - Margy

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  10. Thanks everyone for stopping by and taking the time to comment on my post. - Margy

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We welcome your comments and questions. - Wayne and Margy