Trampoline Spiders

  In the herb garden, there is one bunch of garlic chives growing in a rather large box.  This box is situated right next to another (even larger) box that contains onion chives.  The chives do well in the boxes but since they all seed profusely, chives are everywhere!  About once a week, I have to use the lawnmower or weed trimmer to keep the chives from looking like a weedy mess.  Today while Mark and I were meandering about in the gardens, I discussed what the garden plans were.  Seeds were purchased last week and all that was needed was for me to prepare the rows.  I was telling him how many wolf spiders I find under the leaves and mulch in the boxes when I spied a nice web.  This web, however, was not made by my handsome wolf spiders.  This was a "sheet" web and was rather large.  I spanned between the corners of the two boxes making it a good fifteen inches wide and as much long.  Never had I seen one of these before...at least, not this large.  

  Searching for the spider that made such an intense web proved futile.  It was my thought that to make such a fine web, the spider would be large and would  be easily seen on the web.  Most spiders stay on the edge of their webs while awaiting the hapless bug to become ensnared.  Though I searched, nary a spider was found.  How odd!

  A bit of research on sheet web spiders leads me to believe that my master web builder is probably none other than a tiny grass spider.  These little arachnids spin massive, non-sticky webs and then crawl off to hide nearby.  They are so in tune to the vibrations of the web that there is no need for the stickiness.  They are also extremely fast spiders! Once an insect crawls, falls, or flies into the web, the spider simply races from its hiding spot to pounce on the hapless critter. 

  I was impressed with the amount of webbing spun to make this fine trap.  Not only was it huge, it was multiple layers thick.  Although, there seemed to be no pattern involved, it appeared to be well made and strong.  My new name for these grass spiders that produce sheet webs???  Trampoline spiders!  It seems as if they spin the perfect trampoline for bugs to enjoy before they meet their demise!