Discover a cunning crafter of webs
I’m obsessed with night-time wanders now that the weather has warmed up. And it seems, as the weather has warmed, the mosquitoes are absolutely obsessed with me too! But aside from the odd bite here and there, a walk around the garden after dusk...
I’m obsessed with night-time wanders now that the weather has warmed up. And it seems, as the weather has warmed, the mosquitoes are absolutely obsessed with me too! But aside from the odd bite here and there, a walk around the garden after dusk during the balmy summer season is my absolutely favourite thing to do.
The evening usually starts right on sunset, with the kookaburras still laughing away in the gums around us and the micro bats taking to the sky, flitting and swooping in large circles hunting for moths and other insects that they catch on the wing. Not long after that, there’s the obligatory crash as the possums emerge from our garage and the neighbours shed and, yes, from our roof, and make their way, marching across fence tops and roof tops to find their feast for the night.
For me though, it’s the little lives that I can’t get enough of. The orb weavers sailing down on their silk, after spending the daylight hours hidden away under leaves, and starting to build their large webs, always at exactly face height and which they, for the most part, will take down and eat as light dawns the following day. The crickets chirruping and the stag beetles ambling across the lawn, looking formidable and fierce, particularly to other males of the same species.
I’ve recently finally come across the stunning Net-Casting Spiders, also known as Ogre-Faced Spiders, their huge headlight-looking eyes staring out into the dark. But it’s not only their incredible charismatic faces that have won me over, but their crafting skills, which consist of them spending the early evening ‘knitting’ a net out of wavy silk. Back and forth she works, carefully finishing off each row, before slowly spinning around, her head now facing towards the ground, where she uses her front four legs, to tug and stretch at the net, that wavy weave perfectly designed to pull out and to surround prey as it wanders across her path.
Even with those massive eyes, it’s difficult to accurately determine where to aim her net, and so she sprays the leaves below her with white fecal matter, knowing that when a cockroach or a cricket wanders across the splatter she can launch forward and catch them with her net.
So that’s where I’ll be, over summer and for long as I can last without being eaten alive, surrounded by my favourite critters and being surrounded by the comings and goings of those who live in the dark. If you get a chance, step outside during these warmer months – you never know who you’ll run into.
