Banded Garden Spider

Posted on August 25, 2023 by tspuckler

This is a neat spider that I have not only found while out and about, but also have occasionally seen in my backyard. For me, Banded Garden Spiders are not as commonly encountered in Ohio as Black and Yellow Garden Spiders, although they inhabit similar locations.

This orb weaver produces a large, concentrically patterned web in areas of tall grass and shrubby vegetation. The web is strong and capable of holding fairly big and active insects like wasps and grasshoppers. The webs of these arachnids have both sticky and non-sticky silk. Non-sticky silk is used for the threads which radiate from a central point like spokes on a bicycle wheel. The spiral threads are composed of the sticky silk that captures the spider’s prey.

A behavioral study of web construction determined that the majority of Banded Garden Spiders orient their webs along an east-to-west axis. The spiders hang head-down in the center of the web with their abdomens facing south. Since the underside of the spider is mostly black, the position of both web and spider is believed to maximize solar radiation for heat gain, which is an important consideration for spiders that are active late in the year.

At about an inch in length (not including its legs), the Banded Garden Spider can usually be observed resting in the center of the web, although it may drop readily if disturbed. Its body’s background color is a pale yellow with numerous lateral bands of black. The legs are also a pale yellow with darker spots or bands.

Banded Garden Spiders use a “wrap-and-bite” strategy to quickly dispatch their prey. When a victim becomes entangled in their web, the spider rushes over and wraps the prey in a thick shroud of dense webbing. They it bites through the victim’s exoskeleton. The bite delivers neurotoxic venom that halts its prey’s struggling and necrotoxins that dissolve its food’s insides.

Banded Garden Spider adults can be found from mid- to late Summer through the first freeze. Their egg sacs are deposited in early Fall and consist of several hundred eggs. The immature spiders emerge the following Spring.

The Banded Garden Spider is a colorful and fascinating creature that I look forward to seeing every Summer.

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Everlasting Sweet Pea

Posted on August 18, 2023 by tspuckler

I often see this plant on the edges of roadsides in the Summer months. Everlasting Sweet Pea is an old-fashioned, herbaceous perennial climbing vine with beautiful, bright flowers that grows up 10 feet tall.

A non-native, it was introduced from Europe as a horticultural plant because of its showy flowers.

This plant’s habitats include meadows with history of disturbance, woodland edges, sites of old homesteads, vacant lots, fence rows, and gardens. It has distinct stems that look “winged” on each side.

Everlasting Sweet Pea produces pink or white flowers in summer. Its flowers are clustered in groups, about one inch long, in the typical pea-flower configuration, with a large standard (upper petal); rose-purple, rose-pink, or white. Despite their name, the flowers are not fragrant.

Bumblebees pollinate the flowers. Butterflies visit the flowers for their nectar, but do not pollinate them. Fabricius Blister Beetles, the caterpillars of the Oithona Tiger Moth and some herbivores feed on the leaves. However, the seeds of Everlasting Sweet Pea are poisonous.

The flowers are followed by hairless flattened seedpods, about two inches long and half an inch wide, with several seeds inside. The seedpod, which is initially green, gradually turns brown, splitting open into curled segments, flinging out the seeds.

This old heirloom vine was grown by Thomas Jefferson and it also known as Perennial Pea-vine, Everlasting Peavine, and Perennial Sweet Pea.

Third Eye Herp
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House Wren

Posted on August 11, 2023 by tspuckler

We’ve had at least one of these birds visiting last year and again this year. I put up a birdhouse specifically for it. The male sits on or near the birdhouse, puts twigs in it and frequently calls in efforts to attract a female. A familiar backyard bird, the House Wren was named long ago for its tendency to nest around human homes or in birdhouses.

The House Wren has one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World. It breeds from Canada through the West Indies and Central America, and southward to the southernmost point of South America.

Very active and inquisitive, bouncing about with its short tail held up in the air, pausing to sing a rich song, the House Wren adds a lively spark to gardens and city parks despite its lack of bright colors. These birds feed on a wide variety of insects, including beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, moths, flies, and many others. They also eat spiders, millipedes, and snails.

House Wrens nest inside tree holes and nest boxes. As the season progresses their nests can become infested with mites and other parasites that feed on the wren nestlings. Perhaps to fight this problem, wrens often add spider egg sacs into the materials they build their nests from. In lab studies, once the spiders hatched, they helped the birds by devouring the nest parasites.

Weighing less than two quarters, House Wrens are feisty and pugnacious animals, considering their tiny size. They are known to occasionally destroy the eggs of other birds nesting in their territory by puncturing their eggshells.

House Wrens range far and wide, spending summers over a large part of the United States and wintering anywhere from Florida to the southern tip of South America. Only a few stay here in cold months, as they are replaced by the aptly named Winter Wren visiting from the mountains.

The House Wren is a plain looking songbird, but its bubbling songs, nonstop activity and willingness to live near people make a pleasure to observe.

Third Eye Herp
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Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Posted on August 4, 2023 by tspuckler

This is a big, handsome, black dragonfly with spotted wings. In addition to its size, the male Twelve-spotted Skimmer is easily recognized by its wing spots. Females have a brown body with yellow lateral stripes with similar wings to the male, but lack the white patches.

These insects have two sets of wings. They have twelve dark brown or black wing spots (three spots per wing) – hence, the name “Twelve-spotted.” The Twelve-spotted Skimmer averages just over two inches in length and their wingspan is just under two inches.

Dragonflies are very efficient hunters and catch their insect prey by grabbing it with their legs. Adult Twelve-spotted Skimmers will eat almost any soft-bodied flying insect, including mosquitoes, flies, butterflies, moths, mayflies and flying ants and termites.

Skimmers are the most common and colorful members of the dragonfly family. Their wings are held flat and extend outward from the body when at rest.

Males typically are very territorial at breeding sites, displaying aggression by chasing competing males in what can be likened to an aviation performance of vertical loops and side-by-side flight displays.

The Twelve-spotted Skimmer is found in southern Canada and in all 48 of the contiguous United States. Its habitat is ponds and nearby fields. As visual hunters, nearly all of a dragonfly’s head is eye, so they have incredible vision that encompasses almost every angle except right behind them.

It is always cool to see one of these fine creatures when out and about. Dragonflies were among of the first winged insects to evolve, some 300 million years ago and had wingspans of up to two feet.

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Monthly Archives: August 2023

Banded Garden Spider

Everlasting Sweet Pea

House Wren

Twelve-spotted Skimmer