After a week of speculative mourning for my little anal spider, whom I assumed had been eaten by the invading praying mantis, I got the shock of my life this morning when I checked the cedar bush outside our office. She was back! This time, she had built her web another 8 inches further left, and angled so as not to catch the breeze which is still blowing hundreds of puffs of thistledown everywhere. The spider looked satisfied, her web was clean; the unique angle kept the blowing thistledowns from sticking to it. What an engineer she is! My admiration knows no bounds.
And as if that were not enough, when I went out there at lunch, expecting to see the web full of thistle, I was in for another shocker. There was the mantis! She was slowly making her way over the bush, away from the web--and as I watched her slow progress through the branches, I noticed something else: she is missing half her right front arm! The spider hung onto the center of her web resolutely, and perhaps a bit smugly as the wounded mantis tried desperately to grab cedar sprigs with her non-existent front hand. One could almost see her grin.
I'm impressed. And I can't wait for the next installment.
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