Insect Picture of the Day

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Funnel-web spiders like to string tangle webs in the corners between two walls or other surfaces. Their webs are not sticky, but instead start out as instant cobwebs: the silk frays and shreds even as it is spun into place. The result is a sort of fuzzy velcro, and when a bug wanders into it the spines and hairs on his body get snagged in the loops of silk, slowing it down long enough for the spider to catch it.

This funnel-web spider set up shop in an interesting place: below the vent grate in the shed floor above the root cellar. A perfect place to catch bugs migrating from the bright light and fluctuating temperatures outside to the cool, inviting darkness of the cellar. The translucency of her legs and body are due to the harsh backlighting and to the fact that she’s quite small: not counting the legs she’s probably only 8mm long.

For the spider’s part, she knows that the web won’t catch her prey for her, but only slow it down, so she comes rushing out lightning fast and attacks the tangled bug, usually going immediately for a grab and killing bite. It can be rather unsettling to watch at times, because these spiders really do appear very fast and aggressive. Towards humans, however, they are not much of a threat: they use their speed to flee from prying fingers and eyes. The funnel of their web is actually an escape hatch. If anything comes into the web that’s too big for the spider to handle, she bolts down her funnel and out of her web to safety.