Garden spider - Argiope

By Pat Rowland

ED: You may have seen this spider around your house. Today’s blog post is a timely reprint of an essay by Pat Rowland, originally published in the Featherless Flyer in December, 2007, and the photo is by Kay Karns, taken at the Refuge..

One of my favorite spiders is the Garden Spider (Argiope). This past summer one made her home around my house from August until early November. During this time she ate numerous flying insects plus bonus crickets that I provided when mowing the yard. She moved and laid egg sacs at three different locations until early November.

The following information came from an article by Valerie in Garden Bits (http://home.att.net~larvalbugrexc/argiope.html). The largest orb weaver in our gardens is the black and yellow Argiope. The female is the large spider seen on the web. The males are much smaller and may be seen hanging out close by. Spiders are capable of creating as many as seven different kinds of silk using several different glands that supply the spinnerets. The silk coming out of the spinnerets can vary from an extremely fine single line sued in creating the web to wide ribbons used for subduing prey or making the central design on the web.

In order to grow, spiders must periodically shed their exoskeletons. This is when they are most vulnerable to predators. Just before laying eggs, the female spider is often quite large and her abdomen distended. Argiopes produce large numbers of young in their egg sacs. A female may lay one or several egg sacs in a season. The young spiders hatch in the fall but overwinter in the egg case. The Argiopes live only one year, expending all their energy producing eggs. Once winter arrives, they die.

ED: Don’t miss Dr. Steve Goldsmith’s presentation on Insects, 10 a.m., Saturday Sept. 11, for Second Saturday at Hagerman NWR. For more information on the programs and activities of Friends of Hagerman, see http:www.friendsofhagerman.com. To visit the official Refuge website, see http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

By Johnny Beall

(Ed. Note: Essay originally published in the Featherless Flyer, Vol I, Issue 4, September 2004)

Why did the chicken cross the road? Of course, it was to prove to the armadillo that it was possible.

In the competition to see who is first in the number of road kills of all vertebrates in the southern United States, it always seems to be a close race between the opossums and the armadillos. It seems the armadillos edge the opossums, but not by much.

Armadillos are a unique species in North America in that they produce one litter per year, and that litter is always identical quadruplets. This means that each of the four is genetically identical to the others, even to all being of the same sex. Armadillos are close kin to anteaters and sloths which occur in South America. Actually the armadillo migrated here from South America and many people can recall when the first ones moved into this area.

Now for the big question, why do so many armadillos become road pizza? A look at their teeth will provide a clue. They have no incisors or canines and their primitive teeth are adapted for eating invertebrates, which include many insects.

Billions of insects are hit by speeding automobile every day and set a gourmet smorgasbord for the insect eating armadillo. But there is always a “catch” in any good deal, and the “catch” in this feast is that the table is set on the highway. Armadillos are nocturnal so they go picking amongst the beetles and butterflies on the highway in the dark. The next vehicle adds the armadillo to the carnage because of two major defects to its nature when faced with modern technology.

Ed: Want to know what those two defects are??? To be continued next week!

See armadillos and more at Hagerman NWR. For activities and programs at the Refuge, visit http://www.friendsofhagerman.com and for the official Refuge website, go to http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html.

Johnny Beall retired as Hagerman NWR Manager in May, 2008, after 35 years with the US FWS including seven years at Hagerman. Photo from Hagerman NWR photo files.