spider – Page 2 – Dithyramb

According to blissandzen , orb-weaving spiders use the radial threads of their webs for travel, which is why they aren’t sticky like the spiral threads.

I’m sure there’s a former graduate student out there somewhere who gave years of her life nipping apart spider webs to analyze the chemical structure of the various web components. Thank you, anonymous unheralded scientist.

And thank you, blissandzen!

Image: Illustration from an 1860 edition of Harper’s Magazine, from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

According to blissandzen , orb-weaving spiders use the radial threads of their webs for travel, which is why they aren’t sticky like the spiral threads.

And thank you, blissandzen!

Image: Illustration from an 1860 edition of Harper’s Magazine, from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Arabesque orbweaver spider (Neoscona arabesca), Portsmouth, Virginia. This is a tentative identification. If you can help, I respond well to correction.

Wolf spider (Family Lycosidae) on a dew-spattered web. At the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge, in Northampton County, Virginia.

For Pierce, who thinks the internet needs more spiders.

Please click photo for full view.

Wolf spider (Family Lycosidae) on a dew-spattered web. At the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge, in Northampton County, Virginia.

For Pierce, who thinks the internet needs more spiders.

Please click photo for full view.

Green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans), at Parr Lane in Chesapeake, Virginia.

This is for James, who likes spiders, and for Marion, who doesn’t.

Please click the photo to enlarge. I dare you.

Also, for cleansing the senses after that cloyingly sweet postcard post.