Orb Weaver Spiders

It's about the time of year when the orb weavers start to gain awe inspiring girth and size - of the oh my god proportions of Aragog or Shelob. They come in all different colors - blond, red, black with white - but always have the same crab like shape to the abdomen. This cutie is from my Mom's garden around October 2002.

And this is Goliath, the mother of all spiders in our garden, or at least I like to think so. I'm certain we had them before, but this is the first one we noticed (Sept 2001). She is hiding in her nest in the walnut leaves; don't ask what all the greyish crud is. This is not her web; the web has a distinctive spiral shape hence the name orb weaver. Being opportunistic hunters (waiting for something to fly into the web), they don't move around a lot, which is something I sincerely appreciate as these spiders get HUGE.

The eggs hatch from a sack about the size of a small golf ball in spring (I relocated one from the shed to the walnut); you really don't notice the babies until June-ish? They seem to come and go through out summer, actively hunting for a couple of weeks, disappearing, and re-appearing bigger than ever each time. The abdomen on the female swells so large it literally swings the spider to the left and right as they fly up and down the drag line from nest to web.

Until one day, they look kind of slower than usual, and then they seem to be gone come November. I was very sad when Goliath departed. But then I saw the babies next spring and realized this is their way.

This year, we have one in the bamboo Lin gave us and another in the leather fern.