I asked when I posted the Spiderweb Hung with Dew how everybody felt about spiders. Since nobody told me otherwise, I must conclude that you all like them, so I have taken the liberty of sending some to each of your homes.
I’m just kidding, of course: They won’t listen to me. But with winter over, they may just show up anyway. If so, consider that while you might be frightened, we’re inconceivable eldritch horrors to the little guys, so why not let them live to tell the tale to their skeptical spidery friends over sips of bug brew?
If you haven’t figured out by now that I’m a little odd about arthropods, well. It’s a thing. Somebody said to me in conversation the other day that the bugs will be coming out soon, then looked surprised when my answer was yay, so I’ll clarify, and in this case it doesn’t even matter what definition of bugs we use. Not only do they play an important role in the food chain, including providing vital proteins to many songbirds, but they’re also just really cool if one takes the time to really look. With the insane amount of biodiversity within Arthropoda, creatures wilder than any cryptid may be found even in the most mundane places, and many still go unnamed.
This image, taken in May of 2020, shows a group of tiny orange baby spiders venturing out on strands of web strung between tree branches. It’s difficult to identify many arthropods with certainty, especially from a photo, but they are likely an Araneus species, potentially marbled orb-weavers or related cross orb-weavers. They will reach their beautiful adult forms around July and lay their own eggs about October for the cycle to begin anew the following spring.
Perhaps I’ll catch a portrait of their great-great-grandspiders this year.
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