Posted on 08/30/2007 2:44:49 PM PDT by Orange1998
WILLS POINT — Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.
Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.
"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."
Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.
"I've been hearing from entomologists from Ohio, Kansas, British Columbia — all over the place," said Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who first posted photos online.
Herbert A. "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist, said the massive web is very unusual.
"From what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.
But John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, said he hears reports of similar webs every couple of years.
"There are a lot of folks that don't realize spiders do that," said Jackman, author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas."
"Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about," Jackman said.
Garde invited the entomologists out to the park to get a firsthand look at the giant web.
"Somebody needs to come out that's an expert. I would love to see some entomology intern come out and study this," she said.
Park rangers said they expect the web to last until fall, when the spiders will start dying off.
Get out the hairspray and a lighter!
Cool!......
..shuddering.. I know most spiders are good and all, but they just give me the creeps!
well, all except one spider that I’ve actually fallen in like with out here. It’s a green lynx spider that lives on my angel trumpets and it’s just the coolest looking thing you ever saw! LOL! But it’s a jumper so you don’t want to get too close .. at least I don’t. It flat kills all the caterpillers that dare to try and eat my plants, sucks the juices right out of the caterpiller and leaves the skin. Pretty cool : ) LMAO!
I thought of what we used to call ‘tent caterpillars’ as well, but the leaves appear pretty green inside the web, and should seem damaged had it been the worms.
You need to get you a Louisville Slugger to carry when you go out. Just wave it up in the air ahead of you as you walk : ) Also... gives the neighbors something to laugh at. But it works... trust me.
Oh my! That sounds good too! I’ll keep that one in mind.
I wonder if its last name is Clinton. LOL
ROFL!!! Good one!
I have a new name for this spider! LOL
Look at the eyes on the tree! You are good at this.
Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
are weaving webs to wind me.
I am far more sweet than other meat,
but still they cannot find me!
—Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit Chapter”
8 “Flies and Spiders”
LOL! I knew it!
This brought back an ancient (at least 45 years ago) memory. Shortly after this military brat (me) married my good ole southern boy, Mr. RR came into our house after doing some yard work and announced, “Honey, I’ve got “bagworms”. Now, growing up on Air Force bases all over the world, I could identify every plane ever flown, price all items in the commissary, speak fluent German and French, met “Ike” personally, and even had a passport at age two. But, I never heard of “bagworms”. Fearing a dread sexual disease, he took me into the backyard to show me the webs of “bagworms” hanging from the trees.
We still laugh over that. Live and learn.
I think I see the looter guy too.
Not a chance! I won't rest until that wall-crawling menace is unmasked and behind bars where he belongs!
Did “What a tangled web we weave”, Hillary camp out there? My apologies to arachnids.
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