Female Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus)

Dear Readers, whilst most animals in the garden breed in the spring, the garden spiders are different. This particular spider has spun her web in a perfect spot between the buddleia and the Kilmarnock willow, and I’ve been saying hello to her every morning. It’s amazing how quickly these spiders grow – I swear this one has doubled in size in the past week, and in fact that’s why we suddenly notice them – for most of the year (baby spiders hatch in April or May) they are too tiny for us to pay attention. But now the females are coming to the end of their life cycle. 

This spider’s huge abdomen suggests to me that she is will be laying her eggs soon – they are wrapped in a silken cocoon, and the female will stay with the eggs until she succumbs to the frost and dies. As winters grow milder, I imagine that there’s an outside chance that the spider will live through the winter, although as far as I know she only breeds once. Mating is, as with all spiders, a tricky affair for the male – the male taps the web rhythmically so that the female knows that he isn’t dinner. Apparently smaller males are eaten more often than larger ones, and males of all sizes spend a lot of time catapulting themselves off of the web if the female moves towards them suddenly. Who knows what happened to the father of this spider’s eggs? I dread to think.

Here she is in all her glory. I love the way that the patterns and colouration on the back of each spider is subtly different, but most Garden Spiders have that distinctive ‘cross’.

‘Our’ spider

Another Garden Spider – slightly darker in colour.

And here’s a little film of ‘our’ spider sorting out her web. I think she’s just tidying up a messy bit of silk here, to make sure that her web is as invisible as possible. Spiders often eat their webs – no point in wasting all that useful silk!

And here’s another favourite, often spotted on sunny walls – a Zebra Jumping Spider (Salticus scenicus). I love jumping spiders! And there have been Zebra Jumping Spiders patrolling the front of my house ever since I moved in. I always look out for them when it’s sunny, and they never disappoint. This species has been found capturing prey over three times its size, and it often keeps a close eye on the flies visiting the Mexican Fleabane in my window box. So many miniature dramas going on!

So there’s a lot going on in the garden as the year starts to segue into autumn, and there will be even more going on soon – the tree surgeon has been to visit, and I’m hoping for a massive pruning of my whitebeam and hawthorn by mid October. We were hoping to do this work in the spring, but it was so wet that by the time the tree surgeon could start, everything was in full leaf. Tree work is always a bit concerning, but it’s so important to make sure that trees are looked after and don’t outgrow their root system. Anyhow, fingers crossed, and I shall keep you posted!