![]() ![]() ![]() How could I expect them to develop tolerance, awareness and respect for all of nature without setting good examples for them? It soon became apparent that if I feared snakes, spiders and other “creepy-crawly” things so would most of my students. My attitude toward these stealthy creatures, known to terrorize so many humans, changed for the better when I began teaching. Chances are pretty good that Little Miss Muffet may have been responsible. I can recall my dislike for spiders as a child but as usual have not the slightest remembrance of why or where that feeling began. These invaluable creatures, genuine partners in nature, continue to be despised and mistreated by the great majority of humans largely due to poor education and upbringing. I happen to shy away from those items or actions which unnecessarily continue to accentuate the bad, scary and undesirable aspects of spiders. Imagine how frightening an animated oversize spider crawling around on those gigantic webs might be! Some feature enormous masses of gauzy spider web-like material draped over entire small trees or shrubs. With the long-awaited Trick-or-Trick season, surely there are bound to occur some rather fascinating, albeit far-fetched concoctions devised for scaring passersby, or especially the little trick-or-treaters. According to the experts, they are among the best eyes of all invertebrates, those creatures lacking a backbone. Jumping spiders, usually quite small and extremely fast moving, have relatively large eyes, especially the center one. As soon as I open the door they quickly fall to the ground and disappear in a flash beneath the metal molding at the bottom of the garage siding. The large specimen I thoroughly admired and photographed, which was nearly three inches long, must have been at least a few years old.Įven quite recently and well into later October, I’ve been noticing several small jumping spiders on our garage door. It is said that a Wolf Spider may reach six or seven years of age. Because they are able to go underground, they make up a large portion of the total spider population in the Arctic and on high mountains. Some dig burrows into the ground, while others make holes under rocks. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 Wolf Spider species known to man and perhaps more than 100 species north of Mexico. The Wolf Spider is a loner, living and hunting in a solitary manner. Two of the eight eyes were higher on her head and not easily visible. Two of the eyes were larger than the remaining six, and those are capable of reflecting artificial light at night. ![]() Her eight eyes were arranged in three rows, the lower having four eyes. ![]() She would gently brush those babies away that would crawl over any one of her eyes. Occasionally one of her babies would venture a few inches away, then quickly scurry up one of her legs and rejoin the rest of the pack on her back. I fondly remember one large female Wolf Spider, her back covered with dozens of tiny baby spiders, which I photographed one summer. They are very keen-sighted and swift on foot compared to web-weaving spiders that are comparatively poor sighted and too slow to capture their victims any other way than by snaring them in their webs. Wolf Spiders must run their prey down like a cat after a mouse. As children, we frequently saw them scurrying among the small rocks and stones along the beach where we spent countless hours during our summer vacations. Most people, while working in their flower beds or gardens, see them running on the ground. However they do leave a drag line behind as they amble over the ground. Wolf Spiders, for example, make no webs even though they look like some other web-spinning spiders. When some baby spiders are being “parachuted” over the landscape like miniature aeronauts, others are traveling on foot. I’ve heard this “safety line” is also referred to as a drag line. The extremely fine gossamer silk given off by each spiderling of the web weavers – as well as the non-web weavers – enables them to be swept up by the wind and carried long distances. The Star-bellied Spider is an orb-weaver that lives in meadows of tall grasses.Įven though a field of crops is harvested and cleared at this time of year – followed by a new planting next spring – thousands of baby spiders can be “ballooned” to an area during the summer. ![]()
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