Spiderbloggers

OK, make that Badumna insignis. Little Birdski now too large to be B. longinqua. Very interesting behaviour today, leaving me either astounded at her, or at my gullibility. There was a fly caught high up in her web, top right (too small to show on the photo), so she headed up to get it. I went over to get a photo. I moved too fast and she ran back down to the edge of her funnel. She then emerged, stayed low, and I photographed her:


So far, all is normal. The web in front is a female daddy long-legs (Pholcus phalangioides). Their webs seem to overlap, but the two spiders take no notice of each other. They've been this way for weeks now. Little Birdski just sat there, as in the photo above, with the fly buzzing in the top of the web. I thought that maybe she could still see my presence, even with her limited eyesight, given it was bright light and I am large and dark. I moved so that I could see her web and the fly, but the window frame blocked her from me. Now this really happened - I kid you not! Little Birdski moved down to the front, where she could again see me. It is not a position in her web I have ever seen her in before. She took up a strange position:



I didn't move for about 5 minutes. Neither did she. The fly kept buzzing. I gave up and went away. A minute later she was back in her retreat with the fly.

That is very strange and interesting! Although they have very poor eyesight our large noctural orb weavers react readily when they see me (or hear me or sense me) coming. They must have so many very acute senses. And who's to say we have discovered all the ways spiders can sense their environments anyway?

I have no doubt we have a huge amount still to learn about spider behaviour. So little has been studied in the wild - hey, they're not even all classified yet! Such fun for us lot observing them at the only pace which will really work in the real world. Slowly.

I have to do my very best sneaking to get close to many of my wolf spiders when they are our sunbaking during the day. I start from about 5 metres away. Having what I call a fleeting-glimpse-of wolf-spider experience many, many times, I am sure they detect me both by sight (they do have good eyesight) and/or by picking up vibrations of my approach. I also find individuals of the same species react differently. This year's have all been very skittish.

But Little Birdski appeared to come forward into a position where she could see me, when I tried to move out of sight. Given the very bright sun that day, she probably could detect my bulk, if not any details. As soon as I was gone, she got the fly and went into her retreat. I really regret not watching from a greater distance, but after she had been stationery for five minutes, I didn't expect her to do anything suddenly, so I went and checked if an email I was waiting for had come. Wouldn't it be good if we knew in advance when they were going to do something interesting, so we don't spend hours staring at staionery spiders?

All this incident served to do was make me even more convinced that people like us watching the spiders around our homes in detail, is really worthwhile, because we can pick up new behaviours.

Great day!!!!!!! Little Birdski made an egg sac! I knew she was ready. This morning she was weaving madly inside her retreat, so I got hopeful that finally I was witnessing the great event for the first time in my life. About an hour later I could see her egg sac. The first pair of photos is her yesterday looking very gravid, and then today, with her egg sac. OK, it's only her leg on her egg sac, but the angles are a tad difficult for photography.



I tried a different angle, and this looks like an egg at the end of her spinnerets. As that is not where the eggs come out, she may be moving it with her hind legs and adding silk. Or maybe it isn't an egg. I just couldn't get a better angle on her.



Lots of joy and adoring Little Birdski followed, until I made the unpleasant realisation. This means a large number of baby Badumna in the kitchen. Even though they are my favourite spiders, they do have a nasty bite if handled, and will set up home almost anywhere, including in cloth or toys in cupboards. So any of the children visiting could pick up something and grab a spider. That's a risk I can't afford to take. Badumna are not the docile companions that the daddy long-legs are. And their webs are much more intrusive than the delicate webs of the daddy long-legs. The time had come to take her outside.

I worried about it all day, but finally did the dastardly deed, taking her, on her bird statue, to the outer side of her window ledge. When I first touched the web, she came racing out. But she soon rushed underneath again. I carried it outside, but there was so much web torn away from the window recess that a great deal of it floated underneath. I couldn't pull it off, not knowing whether I would dislodge Little Birdski as well. With my usual vivid imagination, I worried that she was entangled, or in some way unable to move and that I had killed her.

I checked for her every ten minutes or so for the next few hours, and could see no movement. Then she appeared! I jumped around the kitchen, cheering, convincing poor long suffering Damian that my obsession had now gone beyond even the slightest degree of being rational. She moved to the edge of her entrance. Given the kitchen light on behind her, she should have no trouble getting plenty of food attracted to the light and thus to her web. Now to wait for her babies to hatch.

Spider watching is just so much fun!

I am so happy for your Little Birdski. It must be really exciting. Keep us posted on the egg sac and those spiderlings.

Thanks, Nikki. Little Birdski was out today and looked so skinny after doing her egg sac, that I worried that she couldn't get food because I'd wrecked her web. I know that's silly - she's in a really good location with bugs coming into the window. Have you got the idea that I am a worrier? Tonight she had a moth. Granted it was a pretty little moth, but she was feeding, and that is what matters. I shall keep a close watch and report in!

Little Birdski is now back to a reasonable abdomen size and is usually near her egg sac. She has started to weave her bird statue into the outer side of the window frame and seems to be eating well. I though that she was particularly attentive to hr egg sac today, so kept watching for the young to hatch, but nothing happened. I know from previous experience with this species that the young only hang around outside the web entrance for 24-48 hours. I have no idea how long they stay within the retreat after hatching. I've never been able to see an egg sac before.

This will be an exciting experience won't it! I am glad she and her eggs seem to be doing well.

Still no babies. Little Birdski is usually with the sac. She is back to her normal abdomen size again. So I'll just wait. I check a few times a day!

That egg sac must have been infertile. Nothing emerged. Maybe the lack of wandering males inside had something to do with it. Is it common for spiders to construct egg sacs when there are no fertile young?

But a week ago - out in the big wide world - she made a new one. A second egg sac next to the first - and even harder to photograph. Today the young hatched. She's been much more attentive to this egg sac. Today she seemed to cut it and has been hovering over it - and the young have just started to emerge. I can also see the stump of a missing leg in this photo. She hasn't been out of the retreat, at least not when I've been around, for at least a week, so I hadn't observed it. Something must have attacked her.

And I've known her since she was a mere speck of a spider herself. This is the first spider I've watched grow and then breed.