Webs, Weavers and the World of Small

      4 Comments on Webs, Weavers and the World of Small
originally published in naturecommunion.blogspot.ca
Tuesday 29 May 2012

 

 Years ago a certain psychology grad student I knew, found it very illuminating that I tested high on a scale for “associative thinking”. I called this sideways thinking and to me it meant that all tangents connected to an idea should be explored. Rather like the way the strands of a spider web all interconnect.

 

 Spider webs fascinated me as a vehicle for symbolism. They were medicinal too…in the middle ages wounds were stuffed with them. Probably because they have a very high vitamin C content.

 

 So of course I’m curious about the spiders, although not all build webs. The Orb Weavers that come out in late summer and early fall are familiar to many people and they build the classically symmetrical web…symmetrical til an insect or the wind comes along.

 

orb weaver

 

 Sometimes I find a finely woven mat among the stems of the plants in my container garden. I don’t know if Whitey here builds those but I found him/her among the stems of my comfrey plant.

 

white spider

And OrangeBum, he/she seemed to trail bits of web and likes to hide under things. OrangeBum is a jumping spider, you can tell from the stout body. You’ve probably seen the little black and white jumping spiders and they have similar proportions.

 

redbum spider
 One of the most interesting spiders is extremely small and I don’t have a photo…I would probably have to use my microscope camera if I did find one. I saw one once on a windowsill and noticed it because it seemed to have a lump on one leg. I looked closer and found it was a pincer. They are called pseudo-scorpions. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Ar_1.jpg/220px-Ar_1.jpg

 
We humans typically miss out on the world of Small unless we make an effort to look for it and see what’s going on there. It’s sort of like stopping to smell the roses except it’s a visual thing.

 

 
skeletonleaf

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