Life and death at my front door

A bush at my front door is home to a an awful lot of 1 cm long orb spinning spiders. It must be an absolute nightmare for small flying insects.

The spiders are, I think, European garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), a.k.a.
the diadem spider, cross spider, or cross orbweaver.

According to my friend Professor Google, the short third pair of legs are specialised for helping in the spinning of orb webs. These spiders also use them to move around on their web without getting stuck. These legs are very useful only in the web; while on the ground, these legs are of little value.

The webs are built by the larger females who usually lie head down on the web, or in a nearby leaf (with a signal thread attached to a leg), waiting for prey to get entangled in the web. The prey is then quickly captured and wrapped in silk before being eaten.

During mating, the much smaller male mustapproach the female cautiously. If not careful, he will end up being eaten by her - see the horror video!