Happy pre-New Year everyone! I have a very sweet and spectacular cross orbweaver female that has been keeping me company in my outside reading spot the last few months.
She stopped making webs late November so I figured she was at the end of her story. But no. She wove threads around the rose leaves and wrapped herself up into a wee weathertight leaf burrito. She survived two hard freezes and four Alaskan 55 mph wind downpour storms. After the last one, she disappeared and I spent a day looking for her body. I'm really fond of her and thought I'd bury her but then she turned up living under the hood of my truck!
I had a 2 hour road trip planned and warned her in advance so (not kidding) she climbed out and put herself back in the rosebush.
The next day (after another brutal high 20's night), I came outside and found her trying to climb up my tire again. Problem is, she would get a good foothold and then flip over backwards. I brought her into our studio for a couple of days until the cold passed. She drank water I offered.
Yesterday was the first sunny day so I brought her back to her little zone. It's the weirdest thing. She can walk perfectly on a flat surface, but if she tries to climb or maneuver around the higher points of leaf litter, she tips over backwards. Her abdomen is pretty big and it looks like the weight of it is keeping her from being nimble.
I don't know if she has laid eggs yet. I haven't found any sacs and it seems like she should have by now. I covered her with my box turtle's hollowed log and said goodnight. This morning she was still trying to cruise around but the twigs make her flip over backward so she gets frustrated and hunkers down. Poor thing must be exhausted.
I don't get the sense that she's trying to die. She seems like she wants to go someplace but her abdomen won't let her. We are supposed to get an inch of rain today so I brought her in until it passes. Her zone is surrounded by a short brick wall but she can't climb it so she'd be trapped in rising water. I just don't have the heart to watch her drown.
So I guess my question is whether or not any of you have seen that before? She nom nommed sooooo many insects before she stopped making webs. Could she be trying to hibernate? She seems too big to be a juvenile looking to overwinter but I'm not a spider expert. Could it be she's looking for a place to lay her eggs...and shouldn't she have already done that? It's breaking my heart watching her try to maneuver and not be able to do what she wants to do.
For now she's hunkered down underneath her little log and seems perfectly content to be out of the rain.
Here are two pics of her. One is in her Sizzler buffet prime and the other is yesterday in the leaf litter. Hopefully you can see from it how big her abdomen is
She stopped making webs late November so I figured she was at the end of her story. But no. She wove threads around the rose leaves and wrapped herself up into a wee weathertight leaf burrito. She survived two hard freezes and four Alaskan 55 mph wind downpour storms. After the last one, she disappeared and I spent a day looking for her body. I'm really fond of her and thought I'd bury her but then she turned up living under the hood of my truck!
I had a 2 hour road trip planned and warned her in advance so (not kidding) she climbed out and put herself back in the rosebush.
The next day (after another brutal high 20's night), I came outside and found her trying to climb up my tire again. Problem is, she would get a good foothold and then flip over backwards. I brought her into our studio for a couple of days until the cold passed. She drank water I offered.
Yesterday was the first sunny day so I brought her back to her little zone. It's the weirdest thing. She can walk perfectly on a flat surface, but if she tries to climb or maneuver around the higher points of leaf litter, she tips over backwards. Her abdomen is pretty big and it looks like the weight of it is keeping her from being nimble.
I don't know if she has laid eggs yet. I haven't found any sacs and it seems like she should have by now. I covered her with my box turtle's hollowed log and said goodnight. This morning she was still trying to cruise around but the twigs make her flip over backward so she gets frustrated and hunkers down. Poor thing must be exhausted.
I don't get the sense that she's trying to die. She seems like she wants to go someplace but her abdomen won't let her. We are supposed to get an inch of rain today so I brought her in until it passes. Her zone is surrounded by a short brick wall but she can't climb it so she'd be trapped in rising water. I just don't have the heart to watch her drown.
So I guess my question is whether or not any of you have seen that before? She nom nommed sooooo many insects before she stopped making webs. Could she be trying to hibernate? She seems too big to be a juvenile looking to overwinter but I'm not a spider expert. Could it be she's looking for a place to lay her eggs...and shouldn't she have already done that? It's breaking my heart watching her try to maneuver and not be able to do what she wants to do.
For now she's hunkered down underneath her little log and seems perfectly content to be out of the rain.
Here are two pics of her. One is in her Sizzler buffet prime and the other is yesterday in the leaf litter. Hopefully you can see from it how big her abdomen is
