Top Photo: Marbled orb-weaver negotiates the forest leaf litter.

Marbled orb-weavers (Araneus marmoreous) are striking spiders. Large bright yellow or orange abdomens with hieroglyphic-like markings set it apart from the other orb-weavers out and about in the Piedmont at this time of year. They’re one of the most easily identifiable and latest, in terms of seasonality, spiders out there.

I typically come across one per fall season here at the museum. Today, I saw two. Like other orb weavers these spiders erect a circular web on a vertical plane, often across a well used path. They build a new web every night, which is why there always seems to be a web across your favorite hiking path whenever you go for a hike in the morning hours. And, why the first hiker down the trail gets a face full of web.

How do they build a web across a path, which may be three feet or more across, or a web that might span a country road? Well, from a perch on one side of the path, or road, they let out a length of sticky silk into the breeze.

Sooner or later, with the wind blowing in the right direction, the silk is going to contact an object on the opposite side of the road and adhere to it. When it does, the spider hauls in the slack, makes its way to the other side, attaching support and anchor lines along the way. She then sets about to make the business end of the web, the orb or capture spiral section of the web.

Keep an eye out for these brightly colored and industrious arachnids. If you come upon a web but see no spider, look for a curled leaf in one of the corners of the web, the spider may be hiding out in the leaf!

Even with the cooler temps of the past several days you may see one of these apparently hardy spiders, I once saw one in December walking in snow and ice. Unusual enough to have snow or ice in December here in Durham, more so with a spider atop it.

Ranger Greg