Nature Notebook

Garden Cross Spider © Wendy Carter

Orb Weavers

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Worcestershire Wildlife Trust @WorcsWT t worcestershirewildlifetrust G worcswildlifetrust.co.uk w

Did you know that spiders can make great mums...

Last autumn I stumbled upon the Natural History Museum’s Fat Spider Fortnight. Taking place for two weeks in September, this citizen science project aims to get people looking for and submitting sightings of spiders. One of their target species is one of my favourite spiders – the garden cross orb weaver.

I kind of understand why some people aren’t keen on spiders, especially the ones that race across carpets at this time of year (they’re only looking for a mate so we really should let them find love). Spiders, however, play a really important role in nature, often keeping the populations of other species in check and are diverse and beautiful if you take the time to look. Just like you wouldn’t find a blue tit swimming on a lake or a mallard sitting on your bird feeder, spiders have their preferences for living and eating. Some spin webs in low foliage, some anchor their webs amongst tree leaves, others hide in crevices, some lie in wait on flowers and others actively hunt down their prey.

Autumn can be a great time for seeing spiders so it’s time to hide away your fear of our eight-legged friends and do some spotting.

Garden cross spiders spin large silken webs at night, ready for catching their insect prey the next day (they often eat their own web, recycling the silk for the next one that they spin). Females sit at the centre, facing downwards, patiently waiting for an unfortunate individual to land and get tangled, the vibrations bring her running to catch, bite and wrap her next meal. At this time of year, females are particularly noticeable as they’re hugely swollen with eggs. Wander around your garden or find a flower bed in your local green space and you’re bound to come across one of their large webs with a spider in the middle. When ready to lay eggs, females leave their webs and find somewhere sheltered. They lay the eggs between two protective disc-like ‘pads’ spun from web silk and then each female protects her eggs until she dies. Whilst they take two years to reach maturity, once they’ve produced eggs, the females succumb to the frost in early winter and their eggs, hopefully, hatch successfully the following spring.

Adult garden cross spiders are variable in colour but always have white dotted markings in the rough shape of a cross on their abdomens. The recently hatched young, however, are always yellow with a black mark on their abdomen. When they hatch, they gather together for protection, huddling into a ball then dispersing if threatened. Spiders shed their skin as they grow and once the youngsters have gone through their first moult, they clamber up high, catch the wind and head off to pastures new to start the next phase of their life.

We’d love to hear of spiders or other wildlife that you spot. Take a picture and upload it to www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife-sightings n Wendy Carter Worcestershire Wildlife Trust