and was ensnared in Charlotte’s Web. He dismantled it with a stick. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed as I was monitoring the web,
a swell as its occupant Not to worry! This is the scene the next morning
as our Joro spider had rebuilt her web overnight. Photo by author.
I wrote earlier about the remarkable new spiders that have arrived in northwest Georgia, beginning last fall. This year’s crop has -well -exceeded our expectations. I have now counted twelve Joro webs in our garden, each occupied by a large female and several smaller spiders-males perhaps? At any rate, I have captured several images I thought readers might enjoy seeing. I
In my imagining, they are not only harmless to people but they are busy catching and eating mosquitos and all kinds of poisonous spiders. I have no actual proof of this. Each web contains carefully wrapped but unidentifiable mummies of some kinds of critters that have wandered into the spiders’ webs.
underside of their abdomens. Photo by author.
A Rouge-Red side marking grows much larger as the spiders mature. Photo by author.
about a foot without touching their web. They move away from me
(and away from my camera). Photo by author.
Drop me a note if you are also hoping to understand or are simply fearful of these spiders. I am not advocating that you handle any spiders, but thought you might share my curiosity. Unpleasant science, you say? Darwin moved on to studying earth worms after discovering how evolution worked. At any rate, these ladies are darn good engineers and their webs are amazing-some of ours are twelve feet or more wide. They seem to mostly build these well off the ground, just about the level of an unexpecting gardeners head -so be alert.
Love this thread about the joro spiders, Joe! Feel like I’m caught in their web–or yours! Still, I haven’t found one in our yard in beautiful suburban Smyrna, so I guess I’ll have to take your word for it. . . .
Hi George,
I have enjoyed watching my new neighbors, the Joros. My son tells me the name comes from a Japanese myth about a beautiful woman of the woodlands-so it easy to understand how this beautifully colored spiders get their name. I have not been able to identify what they are capturing in their webs but hope it is mostly mosquitoes. The lrge females remain motionless during the daytime and that may be because movement would attract predators. And, I think the smaller spiders are males who help with the webbuilding. Their small size wul help in riding a wind current with a silk thread in tow. The ens are similar to those of garden spiders-carefully structured with expanding concentric arcs attached to an array of outstretched rays. Startling if the light hits it just so -or you walk into one. I loved biology in school and college. Meanwhile, I am learning how to paint, inspired to try once more after our beautiful trip to Maine. Hope you are both well and enjoying the last warm days of summer.
Joe