Decorative spider webs attract dinner

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19639387


his wasp spider's web is decorated with a zigzag "stabilimentum" pattern


Orb-weaver spiders attract insects to their webs with ultraviolet (UV) decorations, a study has found.

The function of the intricate patterns in the webs of orb-weaver spiders is subject to much debate in the scientific community.

Previous explanations have identified them as bird scarers, mating signs, sun shades and camouflage.

[Humphrey2]

1. beautiful picture!

[xchrom]

2. welcome!

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I have one of those on my kitchen window right now! I tried to take a picture through

the glass on Monday, but it's not very good. What has amazed me is that he's been there, in the same place, for a month!

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. We let them hang out on our back porch every fall

They will be there until it gets cold. I think that it is interesting how they repair their web, when it gets a little raggedy, and make it last a while longer. Then eventually it will be so full of holes, that they have to take the whole thing down and start a new one.

Orb spiders are cool.

[phylny]

5. Here's the little lady in our yard last year.

Quite the beauty

[link:|

[xchrom]

6. ...

[CRH]

7. If that is what i think it is, ...

every morning at this time of year I need a piece of bamboo to remove their webs so I can walk through the garden. No joke they are that thick, and industrious spinners of web. Also, to humans they are absolutely docile, though I have had them walk my body, fall in my shirt, traverse my scalp, they never bite. Their webs are yellow in the morning sunlight, and join every branch of every tree, every twig of every bush. Their webs are a model of engineering and architecture, that gives pause to a thinking observer. They are, a marvel of nature. But do, enter your garden with a bamboo vine to redirect the product of their spin.

edit: spelling