Spiderling Web Construction and Behavior

[JohnnyChaw]

Hello, I am new to this forum and have sought it out for this topic:

For the last month or so I have been observing what I think is a Furrow Orb-weaver and its web on our back deck. A couple weeks ago to my excitement I noticed a large white wall of web concealing an egg sac not far from the main construction. Just today I noticed about 10 baby spiders in various spots throughout the web, with a few of them having constructed their own crude but appropriately sized webs within the bridge and frame threads of the mother web. My question is: Is this standard in young spiders to construct these webs within their mother's? I also noticed when watching one begin to climb up the web another spiderling at the top begin to descend toward it, with the former then turning around and quickly retreating back down the web. Do these young spiders compete for this limited web space, almost territorially? Is this behavior present in other species of web-building spiders or even spiders that don't build webs, like wolf spiders or jumping spiders?

I look forward to your responses.

 

[Charliemum]

Hello, I am new to this forum and have sought it out for this topic:

For the last month or so I have been observing what I think is a Furrow Orb-weaver and its web on our back deck. A couple weeks ago to my excitement I noticed a large white wall of web concealing an egg sac not far from the main construction. Just today I noticed about 10 baby spiders in various spots throughout the web, with a few of them having constructed their own crude but appropriately sized webs within the bridge and frame threads of the mother web. My question is: Is this standard in young spiders to construct these webs within their mother's? I also noticed when watching one begin to climb up the web another spiderling at the top begin to descend toward it, with the former then turning around and quickly retreating back down the web. Do these young spiders compete for this limited web space, almost territorially? Is this behavior present in other species of web-building spiders or even spiders that don't build webs, like wolf spiders or jumping spiders?

I look forward to your responses.

Hi and welcome to ab

It is normal for baby's to build webs near or attached to the mums as they get bigger they will compete for the space and cannibalise each other it is an unfortunate part of all spider life , even sp that can live communally have occasional losses . Eventually they will disperse or balloon to find a better spot or mum will get annoyed and kick them out or leave depending on sp. When a wolf spider has had enough she will just kick them off , cellar spiders allow there baby's to live in there web then once the baby's have their first moult she leaves letting them fend for themselves, black lace weavers look after the sack till it hatches then lays down and lets her babys eat her as their first meal, they have alsorts of ways to raise young dependingon species. But if she is an orb weaver I would imagine eventually you will see less and less little spiders in her web they will disperse and probably set up all over your porch and you will have several beautiful spiders and webs to watch I hope I helped rather than hindered lol.