Little ones

This is a continuation of the spider tale :)

April 2011

Going back to those days when I kept myself observing and rushing to my bedroom window to check Madame Diadematus...

Me and my spider. By observing 'her' I end up thinking of how solitary she was and ... thinking further, if spiders have a social life.

Of course I turn to the web, did my search and in fact they do exist.

1^st I landed on wikipedia, on Social spider page.

2^nd somehow landed on a paper http://www.sciencemag.org/content/216/4543/319

3^rd on a couple of labs doing research on this subject, for example http://www.spiderlab.dk/social-spiders.html. Although a rare trait among spiders, it can happen! There are a few species that indeed share web, nests, capture preys together and also cooperate in breeding. Some other species are not permanently social but can have a social period in the juvenile stage, before dispersing. (source: this last link has some references, eg Whitehouse & Lubin 2005)

I will not go deep into any of this for now. I just want to share some of what I observed. More information can be found by following the weblinks.

Going back to my window:

After some time, Madame Diadematus disappeared. I was also away for some time….and one day in April the eggs hatched. So one day they were born :) if you look at the pictures you can see groups of tiny spiders clumped together. These little spiders were grouped together for some time, a few days. Every time some strange 'foreigner' web vibration occurred they would disperse a little and then when all was calm they would form the groups again. I did not check if the newly formed groups would keep the same individuals or they would randomly regroup again...would be nice to check on that! Although I have to say that the spread was not huge.... I thought to myself that this is a kind of social gathering. ...or not? Well as aforementioned... they do aggregate right after hatching. I would speculate that ...yes, it seems so...but this should be properly tested  ;)

They were together I suspect for protection (?). Maybe by grouping themselves they can simulate a larger body and predators (maybe birds? I do not know if they have predators though...) would 'think twice' (?).

They were yellow and had a black stain (see pictures). On the other hand would this can attract insects(?) Not sure of what/if they ate!

One day the little ones spread and went away.


A few days (maybe weeks) later I realize that I have two spiders...one on each corner of my window... probably from those little-one's groups.

More information and photos: http://www.nicksspiders.com/nicksspiders/araneusdiadematus.htm

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Araneus_diadematus/#c1ad1e3a3c216528bde91e44bf5a7f67