Bowl and Doily

  This morning, I pushed the lawnmower about the place for a couple of hours.  The grass was growing faster than a bad weed and the place was looking a bit shabby.  The shady spot near the crepe myrtle shrubs needed cutting but that meant moving the four wicker lawn chairs.  I looked around to see if Son was handy but found him atop the ladder working on the upper part of the house.  Well, I guess that meant I had to stop my mower to move the chairs.  This is not bad...the chairs are light but restarting the mower did not delight me.  The thing can be temperamental at times.  I moved the chairs, cranked the mower and continued my work. 

  It was later when I went to replace the chairs that I found the critter.  Sitting on one of the chairs was a rather unusual looking spider.  I had never seen one like this.  It occurred to me that I had better make friends with the critter so I poked it.  The spider made no effort to bite me so I figured that we were on our way to becoming fast friends or, at least, acquaintances.  As matter of fact, the spider did not move much at all.  It just sat in what used to be its web.  The throwout from my mower sort of tattered the web.  Perhaps the spider was merely in shock at losing its home.  I poked again to make sure it was not dead.  Nope.  Not dead.  The spider moved slightly to the left and sat staring at me.  

  The spider in question is a "bowl and doily" spider.  This is a rather unusual name for a critter but that is the actual name.  Of course, it has one of those names that cannot be pronounced but this is the common name.  Bowl and doily spider.  Well, there had to be an explanation for that, did there not?  Yep.   The name comes from the shape of the spider's web.  The spider first spins a lovely doily (flat web) then slightly above spins a web in the shape of a bowl.  In the bottom of the bowl is a small hole.  The spider hides between the doily and bowl waiting for prey to crawl into the bowl.  Once there, the spider reaches up, bites and injects venom into the prey so it can be easily pulled below for consumption.  The bowl and doily method allows the spider some protection from its predators while serving up dinner on a silver platter...uhh...bowl.

  The small spider was left unharmed but was encouraged to move elsewhere.  I cannot have guests sitting on a spiderweb.  The chairs were returned to their original spots sans the critter.  It was gently moved to the stump not far away.  There it can crochet all the doilies it wishes and while away the hours sitting under its bowl.