We walked into the lab today, and discovered someone has been helping. There was a gigantic lacy cobweb stretching from the sink across the lab bench to the microscope — we use that scope every day, so we know it wasn’t there yesterday afternoon, but had appeared magically overnight. I tried to photograph it with my phone, holding up a black heating pad behind it to provide contrast, but it was just too wispy and gauzy to capture. If you squint real hard you might see the grayish lines extending from the lower left upwards to the right. And if you can’t, well, you had to be there.

We looked around and couldn’t find the spider. It probably has a cozy cranny it’s cuddled up in when those clumsy humans come bumbling around.

We had to tear the web down because, like I said, we use the scope everyday. I’m hoping our little friend will web up everything else in the lab, though, because my dream would be to come to work in a huge spider web, the walls all cobbed up, and little spiders scurrying everywhere.

I’m getting a little worried about my wife. She’s been getting a bit…obsessive. She’s been gardening this summer, and sure, it’s great getting fresh vegetables, but she’s taken to getting down on her knees and looking under every leaf and at every stem, and I think she’s currently spending more effort pursuing spiders than anything else. It’s a little weird. So she just had me run to the lab and bring back a dozen vials so she can continue her perverse hobby of peering at arachnids.

This is her latest discovery, a lovely tetragnathid.

Do you think she’s getting rather carried away with this spider mania? What should I do?

Steatoda triangulosa, hovering watchfully over her egg sac.

We also set up 8 Parasteatoda tepidariorum with mates today. For the most part, all went well, with the males approaching tentatively and plucking at the female’s web, as they should. One female went berserk when we added a male, chasing him all over the cage while he frantically scurried away. We were concerned that we ought to split them up, but they’d reached a cautious détente after about 20 minutes, so maybe their relationship will work out.

We’ll know in a week or two if we see more egg sacs.

This one, Pholcus, is right up there with P. tep. as the most common spider I encounter. You’ve probably got them living in your house right now: it’s the cellar spider!

In addition to rescuing her stranded man from airports, Mary has been scouting around for spiders in my absence, and caught a few around the house. This is Parasteatoda tepidariorum, the species I work with in the lab, and she has gone straight into the colony.

P.tep is my favorite: so common, but so interesting.

This lovely plump Salticus scenicus was tough to photograph, it was just skittering all over the place and refused to hold still for a photo. That’s Salticus for you, though.

Mary and I celebrated my return by going into the lab and checking around the university for more spiders. I liked this sign post with the cobwebs zig-zagging all along its length.

There will probably be more spider photos later, after I finish editing them and uploading them to iNaturalist.