Click to Enlarge The outer spiral is the stickiest part of a garden spider's web. A female garden spider quickly injects venom into bugs caught in her web. She then wraps her victims in spider silk.   My Garden Spider by Roxanna Watts, photos by Jim Rathert Her sun-catching web magically appears in my backyard every morning. An old legend tells how Asibikaashi, the Spider Woman, helps bring the sun back to the people each morning. My Asibikaashi is a yellow garden spider. Every morning I rise and see her dew-moistened web sparkling with captured sunlight. The web stretches between our backyard shed and a massive golden mum. I usually see her large black and yellow body poised near the top of the 2-foot diameter web. Her small gray head looks downward, for that's where dinner is likely to appear. She's a patient huntress until some unfortunate bug touches the sticky web. Then she's on it in a flash, using her fangs to fill the bug with a venom that both paralyzes the victim and liquefies its tissues so she can “drink” them later. She then packages her catch by shrouding it in silk before moving back to the top of the net to await another victim. Yellow garden spiders are one of the largest of the orb weavers, so called because of circular pattern of their webs. Female garden spiders may be more than an inch long. Males are much smaller. A garden spider's web is a marvel of engineering, consisting of a firm frame surrounding a central hub of white silk. Threads radiate from the hub, supporting the spiral—the only part of the web that is sticky. Between the hub and spiral the spider leaves a “free zone” where it can pass safely without getting caught in its own trap. A zigzagging line of what looks like heavier silk runs through the center of yellow garden spider webs. No one is sure why they include this feature, called a stabilimentum. It might help stabilize the web, attract insects or keep birds from flying into the web and destroying it. The design of the stabilimentum sometimes changes with each new web the spider builds. As the spider ages, the pattern seems to become more vertical and plain. Even with eight eyes, a yellow garden spider has poor eyesight. It mainly relies on vibrations to sense prey struggling in its web. The spider is well equipped to sense vibrations. Its legs are covered with hairs that are sensitive to movement, touch and air currents. The male garden spider is much smaller than the female and not as brightly colored. Because the spiders have such poor eyesight, a male approaches a female's web cautiously. He plucks her web to announce his presence, but first he'll likely attach a line of silk so he can fall freely to the ground if attacked. After mating, the male dies, most likely because it doesn't eat during the breeding season. Sometimes the female will eat the dead male. The female weaves a silken sheet on which to lay her eggs. She may deposit hundreds of eggs at one time. She wraps the eggs in layers of silk and covers them with a dense, brownish material. Her legs shape the mass of eggs and silk into a ball that may be up to an inch in diameter. A finished egg sac looks like a tiny Greek urn. It even has an upturned neck. She suspends the egg sac near the web so she can protect the spiderlings. Even so, they often fall victim to predators or parasites. The eggs hatch before winter, but the hatchlings don't leave their protective sphere until spring. The newborns disperse quickly. Most simply walk away, but others take a more adventurous route. Some tiny spiders climb to a high point and release a strand of silk. Air currents catch the gossamer thread and pull the spider away. The distance the spider travels often depends on the strength of the wind. There have been reports of “ballooning” spiders landing on ships 200 miles at sea. Young garden spiders build small webs close to the ground in grassy areas. As the spiders mature, they build their webs higher and larger. The spiders spin silk through three tiny holes, called spinnerets, in a brownish disc on the underside of the their body. Liquid silk oozes from spinnerets like toothpaste from a tube. Garden spiders are able to vary the silk's thickness, composition and stickiness, depending on whether it is being used as web framework, for wrapping captured prey or for catching insects. The spider hardens the thread by pulling on it. The harder it pulls, the stronger the thread will be. A single strand might be only 1/4000th the diameter of a human hair. The spiders also make thicker strands. Some of the strands we see are actually multiple strands formed together. Spider silk is a miraculous material. It's at least five times as strong as steel and twice as elastic as nylon. It is waterproof and can stretch two to four times its length. Scientists think that someday we might grow a similar kind of silk. This material might be used to create artificial tendons and ligaments or to support weakened blood vessels. It might also be made into wear-resistent, shrink-proof cloth that will stretch but never wrinkle. I sometimes wonder if Asibikaashi wishes her nest was wear-resistent. Struggling bees, beetles, grasshoppers and other insects tears up her web, forcing her to repair it often. Most female yellow garden spiders consume their web each night. They then construct another one in time to greet the new dawn.