Massive spider disappearence

Discuss the live critter cams, animals and green topics around the planet.

Moderators: Kenya, webearthonline

Post Reply
User avatar
Vargen Saphia
Adult Cardinal
Posts: 2677
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:06 am
Location: Sweden

Massive spider disappearence

Post by Vargen Saphia »

"The European garden spider, diadem spider, cross spider, or cross orbweaver (Araneus diadematus) is a common orb-weaver spider found in Europe and parts of North America..." - Wikipedia.

Hello.
I suppose I should start this article by saying that during the summer, I always spend a lot of time outdoors. Our house is surrounded by fields on three sides, along with a few (huge) horse-pens and meadows, and a forest on the fourth side. Until about seven years ago, I had never seen such a spider in my whole life. Sure, I had heard about, but I had never seen any. So needless to say, I was chocked when I found a HUGE (with a 2-3 cm long sack) one crawling towards my hand while I sat down on a tree stock. At first I even thought it was some kind of super mega mutated tick.

The year after that, all the meadows got infested by them. And the year after that, they infested the fields as well. I have also found a few of their webstrands in the forest, but the ones there probably get eaten by other animals.


But the loooooong winter this year (I think it lasted til around April - May in my part of Sweden) seem to have killed, not only many of our roses but also, the cross spiders off. I've not found one single web from them this summer. Instead, at some of their typical plants, I find other, much smaller spiders with nests that look kind of like those of the cross spiders, but with completely different webs. The cross spiders tend to make those typical spiderwebs found in cartoon, and they build them "in 2D". The new spider I've found build their webs "in 3D", and has a completely different structure. Cross spiders typically start their webs with a strong horizontal thread, and then they use this one to hang up their web. The new spiders don't.


Also, the giant green grasshoppers also seem to have lost some of their numbers. I have heard and spotted a few ones when they move, but not that many yet.
ImageImageImageImage
Post Reply