Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
This, the tiniest of the spiders living in my yard, is a member of the Sheetweb family.
Unlike the Garden or the
Cross Orbweaver spiders, this variety constructs its web as
a indeterminate mass of very fine fibers. The
Cobweb Spider also builds a fine web of this type, but in more sheltered
areas.
The female constructs an egg sac which, as can be seen, is almost as large as itself. It is not that the Neriene radiata eggs are so very large, but the sac is made large enough as necessary to receive any silk-enshrouded creature that has become ensnared in its silken web. This provides a ready-to-eat meal for its hatchlings to consume next season.
The newly hatched and presumably well-fed baby spiders move off to separate locations by releasing long strands of silken lines as "balloons." Perhaps you, too, have seen these delicate, shimmering lines mysteriously suspended from a branch or stretched across a bush: it means that a baby Sheetweb Spider is striking out on its own.
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.