Spider Webs
September 1st, 2007 by 
Exspider
You can’t imagine how tough it is for me to post something from NPR. I will give them a little credit for actually coming up with something interesting for a change…, Naw, NPR shouldn’t get credit for this one. The spiders did it for them…….
Even Spiders Know Everything Is Bigger In Texas
Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas has some new tenants: spiders – lots of spiders. And they’ve spun a giant communal web.
Several hundred yards along a nature trail have been taken over by the elaborate arachnid construction. Webs stretch from tree to tree — and down to the ground.
God Bless Texas!
Exspider/out for now……………….
Posted in Exspider, Texas, Misc. Links, Nature, Reality | 
October 7th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
[…] The Giant Spider Web at Lake Tawakoni There is a giant spider web at Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas. The web was found in August by Texas Parks & Wildlife employee Freddie Gowin while mowing the trails at Lake Tawakoni State Park. The web sparked interest from experts and bloggers when Donna Garde, Lake Tawakoni State Park Superintendent, posted her photo of the web — click here to see a larger version of the web photo. Wired says that thousands of spiders from 12 different species have built the web that reaches 200 yards. Normally, the spiders are competitors and enemies, and work individually on their own orb-shaped webs. But entomologists say that bountiful insect hatches caused by heavy rainfall have provided so much food that the spiders instinctively repressed their traditional enmities in favor of cooperation. It’s a population-level evolutionary behavior that’s never before been witnessed (and thank goodness for that; spiders are scary enough on their own!) The web, first reported earlier in the summer, took more than a month to build; it’s been blown down three times by wind and rain, and re-spun each time. Visitors describe the web as something out of science fiction. Said a park volunteer, “Hollywood couldn’t have done as good a job in their best day as nature has done with this.” In the movie Arachnophobia a new species of spiders was discovered in South America that operates more like organized army ants and killer bees than solitary spiders. Fortunately, these Lake Tawakoni spiders are neither poisonous or very scary. This website provides a great timeline of the social spider web. This webpage contains a list of the spiders collected from the Lake Tawakoni web. And some more informaton about social spiders and links to more webs can be found here. More coverage of the spider web in articles and blog posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Here’s a video clip of the web. Direct video link Permalink | Recent Headlines | News Feeds […]