The whole 'spider eating her mate' thing can indeed be true as here. But it doesn't always end so badly for the male.
On Saturday I spotted a small spider in the corner of the door frame that looked interesting.
I thought at first that it was a young Orchard Orb Weaver, but checking with BugGuide it turned out to be a female Filmy Dome spider (Neriene radiata). But then, later the same day I spotted this:
Its the male Filmy Dome spider and he was slowly sidling his way up the door frame heading for a date with....who knows what. He is a little smaller than her but not so much as some species where the size disproportion is something like a Bamforth seaside postcard.
By late afternoon they were sharing her web.
And on Sunday... they were doing their spidery thing.
And at the end of all of that I'm happy to say he hung around for a couple of hours but then headed out... intact. I've since seen BugGuide pictures where they seemed to share the web for quite a while afterwards, days in fact.
And also from that very productive weekend comes something for you arachnophobes
Malacosoma disstria
Forest Tent Caterpillar
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