Spider Webs

Sheet webs are flat sheets of silk between blades of grass or branches of shrubs or trees. Spiders that create sheet webs also spin a net of crisscrossed threads above the sheet.  When a flying insect hits the net, it bounces into the sheet web.  The spider, which hangs upside down under the web, quickly runs to the insect and pulls it through the webbing.  Sheet webs last a long time because the spider repairs any damaged parts.  The bowl & doily spider, the filmy dome spider, and the platform spider form sheet webs.

Funnel Web spiders make large, flat, horizontal webs of non-sticky silk with a funnel at one end in grassy areas.  The funnel is open at both ends so the spider can escape if necessary.  When the spider feels the vibration of is prey, it dashes out, bites the insect and carries it back to the funnel. Funnel web spiders are also known as grass spiders.

An Orb web is the most common type of spider web and looks like a wheel with spokes.     The frame is created first and the spiral lines are created last, starting in the very center of the web and moving outward, so that the spider can use a lot of its sticky catching silk throughout the web.  Orb webs are created by orange garden orb weaving spiders, banded orb weaving spiders, golden orb weaving spiders, humped or silver orb weaving spiders, arrowhead-shaped micrathenals, bolas spiders, marbled spiders, silk spiders, spiny-body spiders, shamrock orbs and labyrinth spiders, who spins both the orb web and the tangled web.

Horizontal Line Webs are made up of one simple line of sticky droplets stretching across low plants.  Spiders that create this type of web pull the line tight by keeping the slack silk underneath them until an insect hits the line.  When that happens, the loose silk whips along the line and tangles the prey.  Cribellate spiders and other pea-sized spiders create these webs.

Triangle Webs are created in the shape of a triangle.  The spider weaves silky strands of spokes and spirals that connect to all three strands.  The triangle spider waits at one end of the web for an insect to land.  When it does, the spider shakes the web so the insect is caught and cannot escape.