28 Dec 2011

Charlotte our Spider

A week ago, I noticed a spider busy at work, spinning a beautiful web in our porch, right above where I usually like to do my painting. I took multiple shots of her and uploaded one on the web. Then I noticed that she was always in her web, never leaving it.




She became like a faithful companion, and I kinda grew fond of  her presence there, always silently resting or busy spinning web around her new catch of the day.
She's spent much time watching me paint that I suspect she began painting too...see..the word "Spider"? Must've been painted by her  :) .



As I watched her daily, I noticed the back of her body expanding. I told hubby "Maybe the spider is pregnant." My kids began taking notice of her and decided to name her Charlotte, like in Charlotte's Web. So I watched her daily..wondering if that new bulge was real or just my imagination.

Today when I came out...she wasn't in the usual center of her web. For a moment I thought perhaps someone had accidentally destroyed her web! (you've no idea how much I do to preserve her web, even going to the extreme of not watering plants near her web to avoid destroying it...). Well..I panicked and searched for "Charlotte." Well...lo and behold, I found her tucked neatly in a leaf. She looked almost dead...





but upon touching her lightly she moved...spun down and acted dead again...then up to her nest again. I wonder are these her eggs? Must be. I'm not a spider expert, but I think my instincts have been right. Watching now to see if baby spiders will eventually emerge. However, I read that some spiders die after laying eggs...I hope not in this case.





2 comments :

marie said...

Great photos. I like to admire spiders from afar. I've ran straight into a few webs when running, yikes!

gail said...

You bring me light. Thank you, Martha.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...