Along Came A Spider...

Last October I went to Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon, Ohio to try out my Transit Camper van.  My first morning at the campground Mitzi and I took a walk down a nearby service drive.

 I saw a sulfur butterfly float slowly in front of me - I watched to see if would land and then take a picture but instead of landing, I saw it thrashing around in the weeds next to the road.  I went over to take a closer look and saw that the butterfly was tangled up in a spider's web and the spider already had its legs around the  butterfly ready to do what spiders do to unsuspecting insects - "suck the blood". 

This immediately brought to mind, "Along came a spider, who sat down beside her..." but in this case, the butterfly flew in to sit beside the spider - bad luck for the butterfly. I began taking pictures from every angle but was hampered by the wind which caused the tall stalks of  the weeds holding the large web to be in constant movement. Many of my photos ended up blurry but I did end up with some dandies. I especially like the picture of the silk visible as it came out of the spinnerets.

I didn't see the silk coming out in real time but instead first noticed it when I had my pictures downloaded to my Picasa - pretty amazing.  This whole event was a nature lover's dream.  I went back to the web four times and was able to capture the whole process from the beginning when the butterfly was first caught in the web till the end of the day when all that was left was the empty shell and then disappeared. The first time I left the area, I made an arrow with leaves and a stick and it pointed toward the web area. When I went back, the grass had been mowed and no more arrow.  Fortunately, I made a path in the weeds around the web when I took my first pictures and because of that, I found it.  The spider stood on-guard above it's prey all day - head down about an inch above it.  By morning of the next day the spider was again on the butterfly, possibly eating a little left-over butterfly "soup".

I went over for one last visit that afternoon and found that the spider had repaired the web - added a zig-zag pattern and the remnants of the butterfly were gone.

The whole experience had been great for me and the spider but not so much for the butterfly. For many years I've loved finding orb webs in the barn and if I find one and a child is nearby, I tell them it was made by one of Charlotte's grandkids .  The last morning at Maumee, Mitzi and I took a walk and the fields were full of webs covered with dew - beautiful. 

Recently I reread my journal entry and looked through my pictures and then did a little investigating.  The spider was a common garden spider also known as a black and yellow garden spider or simply, yellow garden spider.  It's not harmful to humans and generally if approached the spider will jump off the web and hide in the weeds.  The orb web might be as large as 2 feet in diameter and the zig-zag in the middle may be there to attract insects or possibly to warn away birds that might fly through and destroy the web - this still isn't known.  One thing for sure, this spider is a writer like Charlotte but never going to see "Hi Farm Lady" in its web.  The process of eating insects doesn't involve "sucking the blood" as stated in Charlotte's Web but is really interesting.  You can read an explanation by googling - Charlotte's Web - How Does Charlotte Eat?  - AwesomeStories. I love the part when the spider "literally vomits digestive fluid over the prey".   Great reading.