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Spider friends · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams in the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every week,
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  I share my observations and adventures with the human and
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  natural world around
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
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  Today's episode focuses on a splendid Halloween critter,
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  the cross spider.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
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  You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my
• 0:33
  previous four and a half
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  SPEAKER_00: years of newsletters,
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  SPEAKER_00: as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 48 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Spider Friends,
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  SPEAKER_00: October 30,
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  SPEAKER_00: 2025.
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  SPEAKER_00: Spiders rarely get much empathy in real life or in fiction.
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  SPEAKER_00: Often depicted as scary,
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  SPEAKER_00: evil,
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  SPEAKER_00: repulsive,
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  SPEAKER_00: deadly,
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  SPEAKER_00: malevolent,
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  SPEAKER_00: and horrible,
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  they seem for many to personify or arachnify the worst aspects
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  of the natural
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  SPEAKER_00: world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Consider Shelob, the notorious spider of Lord of the Rings.
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  SPEAKER_00: Tolkien wrote that she was,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: an evil thing in spider form,
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  SPEAKER_00: and she served none but herself,
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  SPEAKER_00: drinking the blood of elves and men,
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  SPEAKER_00: bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her face,
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  SPEAKER_00: weaving webs of shadow,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now that is not a beast to trifle with.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a more Charlotte-esque take,
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  SPEAKER_00: For the last month or two,
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  SPEAKER_00: I have been privy to watching a far more benign spider,
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  SPEAKER_00: at least in regard to elves and men.
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  She sits just outside my office window in a handsome web of her
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  own manky.
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  SPEAKER_00: As is one for her species,
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  SPEAKER_00: Araneus diatomatus,
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  SPEAKER_00: or the cross spider,
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  SPEAKER_00: she rests head down in the center of her web,
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  SPEAKER_00: waiting with one leg attached to a guy wire or signal line.
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  When a potential meal triggers the line,
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  she takes off to nab the soon-to-be-dead visitor.
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  I've been privileged to watch several times as she immobilizes
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  a housefly with a bite.
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  The toxin she injects paralyzes the victim,
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  which she then swaddles in silk.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each time I see her capture a meal,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm amazed by how quickly she wraps her victim,
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  SPEAKER_00: usually in about a minute,
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  SPEAKER_00: rotating the bug as if it is a rotisserie.
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  SPEAKER_00: When completed,
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  SPEAKER_00: she has a nice,
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  SPEAKER_00: tidy bundle,
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  SPEAKER_00: ready to be eaten,
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  SPEAKER_00: like a satisfying burrito,
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  SPEAKER_00: rich in nutrition and texture.
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  SPEAKER_00: She then returns to the center of the web,
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  SPEAKER_00: I assume sated,
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  SPEAKER_00: until another fly or butterfly inadvertently pops in for a pre-stop meal.
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  SPEAKER_00: Although the web appears to be in the same place,
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  SPEAKER_00: as if she set up a long-term tenancy,
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  SPEAKER_00: I know that that is an illusion again.
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  Each web I see is probably new,
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  for she,
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  like most orb-weaving spiders,
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  regularly eats her web.
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  Webphagia keeps her web in pristine,
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  ready for the next victim mode,
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  and supplies nutrients.
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  One study found that about 25% of a spider's diet consisted of
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  pollen captured in
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  SPEAKER_00: the sticky spirals of their web,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the other 75% consisted of flying insects,
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  SPEAKER_00: mainly dipterans and hymenopterans.
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  What this study failed to note is that female cross spiders
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  also consume potential mates.
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  Fortunately,
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  other researchers have not overlooked this arachnidian dining
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  delight.
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  Two British researchers found that the much smaller males are
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  eaten up to 25% of
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  SPEAKER_00: the time,
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  SPEAKER_00: typically before a copulation,
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  SPEAKER_00: when placed in proximity to a female.
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  SPEAKER_00: Males do not benefit in any way from this behavior,
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  whereas females clearly do by bulking up on a food source that
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  was clearly an
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  SPEAKER_00: evolutionary dead end,
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  SPEAKER_00: as well as one with the precise nutritional requirements to produce eggs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Females ate only smaller mates.
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  The Brits hypothesized that females perhaps understood that
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  bigger mates had the
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  SPEAKER_00: talent to feed themselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: and thus would pass this trait on to their progeny.
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  I know that I don't have much longer to watch the spider
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  outside my window.
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  SPEAKER_00: With winter coming, she is winding down her desire for food and for life.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully,
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  she hasn't made a romantic meal out of all her suitors and will
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  soon build a cocoon
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  SPEAKER_00: to house the hundreds of eggs she'll lay.
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  The next spring,
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  the adorable half-lentil-sized yellow babies will emerge en
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  masse.
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  We have been fortunate to encounter this writhing gang of
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  wrigglers several times.
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  SPEAKER_00: Once the spiderlings popped out on the handle part of our backyard gate,
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  SPEAKER_00: and once on the door to our backyard cottage.
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  We were slightly inconvenienced,
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  but did our best not to wound or kill the babies.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were far too cute.
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  SPEAKER_00: Plus,
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  I knew that soon they'd be big enough to head out into our
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  garden and around our
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  SPEAKER_00: house to eat their fair share of bugs,
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  SPEAKER_00: including mosquitoes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, spiders.
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  SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween.
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  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
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  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
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  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 5:28
  a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human and
• 5:31
  natural world around
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my books,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: walks,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: and talks,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: and a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website,
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com.
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  And don't forget to slow down,
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  pay attention,
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  and enjoy the world around you.