Spider Web


Huge spider web outlined in dew, near Pensacola, Florida. Along the low-lying shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the night fogs and dews are often very heavy. The scene before us is that of an early morning in an open expanse of woodland near Pensacola, Florida. Neneath (sic) the warming rays of the newly-risen sun, the fog is gradually lifting among the more distant trees, while everywhere the shrubs and branches and slender spears of grass are heavy with moisture. But more beautiful than any other features of the scene are the many delicate spider webs which in all direction we see hanging wherever a few adjoining twigs furnish support for their gossamer threads. The one in the center, though it has been broken at one pint, probably by some heavy night-flying insect, is of wonderfully symmetrical design and astonishing size; a veritable giant among cobwebs. Its multitude of dainty strands, ordinarily almost invisible, are now outlined by pearly dewdrops, so that we can study every detail of the marvelous structure created overnight by that most expert engineer of all the insect world, the spider. The artisan which built this web is doubtless merely a large specimen of the ordinary black-and-yellow garden spider, or orb-weaver, so called because of the normally circular form of the web which she constructs. This little creature is an indefatigable worker, and it has been estimated that in weaving an average web in the course of a few hours of the early morning, she spins out from her silk-producing organs what would be equivalent, if she were the size of a six-foot man, to two miles of the finest quality of rope. The main guy lines supporting the web and the spokes radiating from the center are spun of strong dry strands of silk. But the loosely hung loops between are sticky, elastic threads which no small insect is likely to strike without sticking fast.

Photographer:	Unknown	Date:	Unknown
Publisher & City:	Keystone View Company, Manufacturers Publishers, Meadville, Pa.
Series & Number:	32685

Scan courtesy of Roy Winkelman. Image retouched and converted to anaglyph in 2008 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. View this image using 3D glasses with the red lens over the right eye and the blue lens over the left eye. If your glasses have the red lens over the left eye, click


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