Recently, I’ve been thinking about spiders. Spiders that live outside, in the wild. Or at least the spiders that live in my backyard. Or in my neighborhood.
My less than scientific observations have led me to conclude that spiders weave two kinds of webs:
- The kind where they form a net and aim to catch flying insects.
- The kind where they spin a long single strand of web from one point to another.
It strikes me as obvious why spiders weave the former type: as a way to catch food.
After thinking about it for a long time, I am pretty convinced that the second type of web — the long, single-strand — is simply a way for spiders to show off. “Look!,” a young spider might say. “Look how far I was able to stretch that web! It goes all the way across the street.”
There’s no way a single strand of spider web is going to catch any flying insect. It’s too delicate and often spun in places that are not likely to get a lot of winged traffic.
Every time I walk into a single show off strand and feel it on me I wonder where the spider is…on me? Even worse= in my hair?
@ Charley D,
I totally freak out in the same way. Maybe that’s part of why spiders do that … They sit and watch people freak out.