Spider Part 6

Last week the third spider egg hatched in my kitchen window.  Today the fourth egg hatched.  The tiny spiderlings hang around the egg case for two or three days, and then suddenly they are gone.  A few of them have made it into the house, but I think most find some little crevice to hide from larger, hungry creatures.  

I was surprised that the eggs hatched so quickly.  I had expected them to wait until spring.  I have learned so much by letting this spider have her home outside my window, even though it is a bit gruesome and pretty grungy looking.

Spider Part 5

In the past few weeks, my kitchen window spider has been industrious. While I was away at a writing class for three days, she laid a third egg case. A few days later, her first egg case hatched. Tiny little fuzzy creatures slowly spread away from their silky home. Eventually she laid a fourth egg case, and today I noticed that the spiderlings in her second case have emerged. Several insects are hanging in the window, lifeless, wings falling off, skeletons dangling. The whole scene is beginning to gross me out, but I am reluctant to clean it up. I am genuinely curious about "my" spider, her life cycle and the snippet of nature I am privileged to observe every day.  How often have I seen spider egg cases and wondered about them?  It is fascinating to get to watch in person.

Spider Part 4

Today my kitchen window spider laid her second egg case.  I felt extremely fortunate to get to watch her complete this task over an hour or two.  She began by creating the top part of the silky egg case, which she attached to the top window frame.  It looked all white and cottony.  Then, when it was about 1/3 of the way spun, she began squirting a yellow fluid out of her abdomen - the eggs.  They did not come out of the tail end, where the spider silk comes from, but rather from the middle of her belly.  The eggs were included in a yellow, gel-like blob, and she pushed them out in convulsions, reminding me of a human woman in labor.

After her eggs were out, she completed the strands of silk around the eggs, forming them into a lumpy oval ball.  It changed from white to gray, looking like the dust one would find under a house.  I expected her to be greatly diminished in size; she was smaller after giving birth, but not as much as I thought she would be, considering the size of the egg sack.  

Spider Part 3

My Kitchen Window Spider caught two winged termites over the past few days.  She didn't seem to be doing anything with them at first, but today she began eating one of them.  I watched her off and on over several hours as she gorged herself.  Her body grew enormous, round and taut, larger than the first egg sack she had laid last week.  It was shiny in the light of the kitchen through the window.  I kept thinking her body was another egg sack, and hoped she wouldn't explode.  I expect she will lay her eggs tonight while it is dark.  I wonder how many sacks she will create before she expires?

Spider Update

Yesterday the spider in my window was mostly inactive.  I figured it was resting from its large meal.  This morning I woke to find the creature had indeed laid an egg sack in the corner.  Her body was noticeably diminished.  She still has not been very active today.  

The egg sack is papery, unlike the silky sphere I was expecting.  It is larger than the spider herself.  What an amazing event to contemplate!  How did this small arachnid create such a large home for her progeny?  I suppose she deserves a day or two of rest after all that labor.  I fear the next step will be her death, but I suppose she could still live to lay more eggs before the autumn comes.  I'll keep watching. 

Spider meal

A spider is eating a bug outside the kitchen window.  I have been watching it all morning, in between other chores.  Some kind of beetle creature has gotten caught in the web in the upper corner of the lower pane.  It is wrapped up in the gentle, steel silk, immobile.  Each time I go to the sink and look out toward the back yard, I observe that the spider is in a different place, attending to its catch.  

The spider's legs are translucent, each joint slightly enlarged, knobby.  It has a plump, taut, round body.  I wonder if it is a female, ready to lay some eggs to ensure its progeny enter next spring.  Could it be that it has gotten fatter throughout the day, or is it just my imagination?

I didn't even notice its web at first.  I thought there wasn't much of one, or that it had been torn up.  But as the light changed throughout the day, I saw that there is actually a complex creation guarding the window.  No simple Halloween-spider web, this is three-dimensional, made from the thinnest strands.  It is practically invisible.  The strings form lopsided pyramids in every direction, and other geometric shapes I cannot name.  Multiple supports stick to the window frame, providing a strategic framework for horizontal and diagonal secondary scaffolding.  Larger black flies barge right through; how this huge bug got itself caught, I wish I knew.

The window is dirty on the outside and the inside.  It has various marks on the outside - mostly spider poop, I think, and other insect leavings.  On the inside it is mostly food and water splashes that have dried on the pane.  I need to wash my windows, but I think I will leave the outside alone for a time, to give the spider its space and to continue to watch this interesting little creature.