Country diary: The orb-weaver spider is still optimistic of a good harvest

The Marches, Shropshire: We must recognise the genius artist in these animals. But how many insects will this one catch?From a bundle of contradictions, a spider unclenches with the dramatic horror of Nosferatu, a name infamously associated with fear of the other. What freaks many people out about spiders is the combination of the uncanny construction and meticulous beauty of the web, the venomous violence of the jaws, the shocking grace of sudden movement, sexual cannibalism and other nightmare eating habits.In all these things, there's strangeness and fascination. Despite spider facts about the tensile strength of their silk being greater than that of steel, that they spin it from their bums, that spider venom can be so deadly (not here, fortunately) and that baby spiders use silk to balloon into the atmosphere, many still find even the most harmless ones to be repulsive and frightening. Continue reading...