7: Catfaced Spider
Hello again friends,
I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. I want to mention that biological classification as taught by western science has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.
That was just a few more days than 2 – but in my defense, I had to process the amazing level of beaver-created infrastructure that I witnessed during my backpacking trip in the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. Just incredible series of beaver ponds, dams, and even a massive lodge. Once we get to that animal, I’m sure I will share some of my photos.
Today, however, we are going to talk about a group of animals that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department failed to mention (much) on their webpage: arthropods. Admittedly that includes crustaceans, who CPW does mention, but otherwise they have nothing about spiders, insects, etc. Instead, I found a list from the Colorado State University College of Agricultural Sciences, which includes “Colorado Arthropods of Interest”.
Oh, I’m interested.
The first one is the Catfaced Spider, also known as the Western Plains Orb-Weaver (Araneus gemmoides). These are fairly common throughout Colorado – you have probably seen one! They are known for the markings on their large abdomens which resemble, well, a cat’s face.
Every single thing I read about these animals was shocking and fascinating to me. Their life cycle is a year, beginning with egg sacs that are laid in autumn and last through the winter; their mother dies after laying one or possibly two egg sacs. Their father has already died some time before that. All winter, the egg sac gestates, waiting for warmth. As a human, it is a strikingly alien concept: every member of your species is either an ancestor, no longer living, or a gestating egg, for an entire season. In spring, the eggs hatch, and the spiderlings “balloon” – create small strands of web and then leap off of leaves or other heights, catching updrafts and distributing themselves around the landscape.
In summer they make webs near porch lights, which are of course the savannah watering holes of the insect world. They wait, legs waiting on their web edges for the telltale vibration of an insect caught in a sticky trap. They then move towards their prey, paralyzing it with their saliva and swathing it in silk to be carried home and eaten. Interestingly, the catfaced spider’s most notorious predator is the black and yellow mud dauber, who uses their own method of paralysis – a sting – to capture the spiders and use them to provision their mud nest walls.
Tomorrow we return to the water.