Spiders of the Season

I've seen many spiderwebs in the last few weeks. At first, I thought I was just noticing them more, perhaps because of a trick of the autumn light. But when I went to my garden, there were webs all over my bay tree. One spider had a striped grub all wrapped up in the middle of the web. I tried to trim the tree without disturbing the spider's web but I accidentally tore one of the threads and watched the spider scuttle to safety on the topmost twig of the tree. I think it was an orb weaver: a big, round golden spider. It looked very healthy.

A little bit of web research (none of it definitive) suggests that many spiders only live for a year. The orb weavers I am seeing are probably females who are waiting for males to find them so they can mate and lay eggs. The males will die shortly after mating while the females will survive until the first frost. Other spiders, like hobo spiders, hibernate in the winter. Does anyone know more about the seasonal cycle of spiders?

It took me a while to recognize that I had just posted a message to subscribers to my weekly Calendar Companion suggesting they look for an animal ally. So I wondered if I was noticing the spiders because they had a message for me. In Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams and David Carson say that Spider's message is to create, create, create. That makes sense as I'm currently working on revising a novel, revising one flower essay and creating another one. So I'm definitely in the throes of creative chaos.

Sams and Carson also say the appearance of a spider might remind you to look at what you've caught in your web. That makes sense to me as I just learned I was awarded an Artist Trust grant to write the final essay for my book of essays on flowers.

I got this great photo from Wikipedia. I haven't been able to achieve a good spiderweb photo yet myself.