Thursday, August 30, 2007

UPDATED: Giant spider web threatens Lake Tawakoni visitors

From the "OMG!" files.

By John P. Meyer

Updated 10:59 a.m., September 11, 2007

Disconsolate over the discovery of his hidden lair, Spider-man can only sit and brood.

Just kidding. Spidey (probably) had nothing to do with this giant expanse of spun-silk webbing now under scutiny at Lake Tawakoni State Park, about 45 miles east of Dallas.

Arachnid scholars from all over the country are slobbering over themselves to get more information out of Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist Mike Quinn, who would just like them to quit bugging him (ahem) and get their thoraxes on out to the nature trail, so they can see for themselves the 200-yard expanse of Hollywood-worthy spook-prop that nature's own denizens have constructed - entirely without human direction.

Flickr user Keeping it real

Creepiest detail: "There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs." Yikes.

Perhaps they should put a magnifying glass on some of those screeching the loudest...

UPDATE: The web has gotten so much attention -- from around the world, even -- that the furor is nearly overwhelming the park staff. Rains knocked down some of the web but the spiders are rebuilding. One biologist thinks that the Tetragnathidae (long-jawed orb weavers) spider is doing the web; but naysayers point out that the Tetragnathidae's webs are usually more symmetrical.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Upon further study (and following examination of sample spiders plucked from the web by a plucky Parks & Wildlife biologist), spider experts have concluded that the massive web structure results from the cooperation of a number of spider families (including Tetragnathidae) working in concert to exploit an unusual abundance of insect prey.

Let's hope they (the cooperating spider families) don't decide to expand their creepy empire, or we may face a living, crawling hell on earth.

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• Science > Nature

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Mike Orren Staff

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Mike Orren Staff

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