Quick Joro spider update for those who are interested in how this new species is adapting to North America...

There's one fully mature female who has been mature for at least a couple of weeks now.  The rest of the spiders are all juveniles, though a few of the juveniles are getting big and should be fully mature before long.

A few males have appeared in the webs, but only a few.  The mature female has a single suitor, and there are a couple of juvenile females who each have a single suitor.

I had my first physical run-in with a web today (which inspired this post).  I walked out the back door, and the top of my head was brushed by a silk strand.  There was a new web right above the door, and one of the anchor lines was low enough to catch my hair.  Obviously, the web had to come down.  The spider retreated to the eave as I destroyed its home and will, I assume, build a new web in a different location.  These things are very good at learning their lessons: when their webs are destroyed, they don't rebuild in the same place.  They move, even if it's just by a foot or so.

The Joros are very good at doing spider stuff.  Their webs are full of trophies, and I often see one actively eating on a fly or some other thing.  They are the most prolific spider species around, outnumbering all other spiders combined.

No hummingbirds have yet been caught in the webs.  This was a concern voiced by many people, but so far, it hasn't borne out, at least not in my backyard.

Joros have been spotted in Maryland and Pennsylvania in recent weeks.  Check out the map and click on a county for more details:

https://jorowatch.org/

Interestingly, the southern/eastern end of their range is currently at about the Fall Line.  I wonder if this will hold or if they just haven't ventured further south yet.  For those who aren't familiar with the ecosystem of this region, the Fall Line is a topographical and geological boundary, and some species only live on one side of it or the other.

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/fall-line/

If the Joros turn out to be a north-of-the-Fall-Line species, then that bodes well for any competing spider species down on the plain.

It's back to school with Sept. saints https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2024/09/september-saints.html

One of my favorite passages from Confessions and a prayer to redeem lost time: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2024/08/happy-feast-of-st-augustine-of-hippo.html

Our 30th wedding anniversary: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2024/08/wedding-anniversary.html

Long photo post of our road trip and family reunion: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-road-trip-and-reunion.html