On a hot summer afternoon, New Year's Eve 2020 to be precise, I discovered a spider in the middle of one of my lavender bushes, which was a trifle alarming as I was sticking my hand in to remove fallen, dead branch from the tree overhead. At that point in time I had little interest in spiders but thinking I might never see this one again (I've never seen one like it in my garden before) I ran inside for my phone and snapped a photo of it before it disappeared. This blog post is the journey of how "it" became "her" and then an absolutely revered poster child and the highlight of my day, every day. Its inconceivable how much this spider came to mean to me but with life caring for my dementia suffering father at home being so stressful, both my mother and I became obsessed with our little garden pet who was there, faithfully, unfailingly in any weather, day or night. She gave us a very great gift, an escape, and it became impossible for us to walk past without checking what she was doing, in short she was like having a television in the back yard - we watched every episode of her show, and here are the highlights, just for you...
Basically I became certain that Roy was female and I was prepared to look for smaller spiders around the edge of the web that may be males, and I learned that should they attempt to mate they were certainly taking their life in their hands, and if they survived it might be at the cost of some of their eight limbs. In fact those poor little virgin spiders are probably the only boys to have all their legs. The detailed description of the spider copulation had me amused and horrified but I tell you, as someone who has no interest in being courted, Roy became my poster girl. LOVE YOU ROY!
I also learned that Roy was not a Golden Orb Spider but a Banded Orb Spider - which to my eye, have the more interesting markings. Both the photos I've shown so far are of her underside - the most photographed side because the markings are so very interesting, and I could get closer and clearer images than from the other side. The image below shows her top side, and Roy was consuming a tasty snack of cricket, which was a very exciting day for us, it prompted another google search and I learned that she has no teeth but will suck the moisture out of her prey and then discard the shell - this took her about 20 hours and as a proud mama I took lots of photo, and some video.
However, I've gotten ahead of myself sharing that image - that happened after what we call The Regrettable Incident. You see, as much as we loved looking at Roy, for a long time she really didn't appear to do anything. There were never any males hanging around the outside of the web, there was never sign of prey in the web, the web and her position in the web remained so very "same". Even the position of her legs was perfectly the same. She faced the same way every day. Still it wasn't until we had several days of extreme stormy weather, bucketing rain, thunder, lightning, severe winds and she just sat there in the open the whole time. Before the storm I had mentioned to mum a few times that I thought she might be dead. That she never took shelter in the storm made us sure she was dead. Still we just kept on saying "Good morning Roy" cheerfully every day, ignoring our growing sinking feeling that she was certainly no longer one of the living.
One day I decided to lightly toss a little Chinese Tallow tree seed pod into the web to see if she would move. Nothing. I tossed another and accidentally hit her. Nothing. I thought she was dead. Another day I got a stick and poked it towards her in the web. Nothing. No reaction. I then video taped putting a twig near her front leg. Nothing. I posted the video on Facebook and can famously be heard saying "damn, Roy, you're dead"
Mum and I were very disappointed about it, but that sinking feeling had been with us for many days, I felt it was time to face reality. That's why the Regrettable Incident occurred. I got the pooper scooper and put it into her web to retrieve her body, I thought I could take a few close up photos and then maybe dispose of her. Well fuck me! She bloody fell into the bush, where I couldn't see her. I wasn't sure but I thought maybe her leg had moved as the blue plastic shovel touched her for the first time, but it was possible that moving the web made her appear to move, I mean the shovel was fairly trashing the web. But I went inside and told mum that I lost Roy in the bush and we moped a little bit.
In just three hours, I walked past that bush to find Roy building her web again. I ran to the dining room window and shouted "Roy Orbison is alive!" (which might be disturbing to my neighbours, but they probably already think I'm crazy anyway) and Mum jumped up and came straight away to watch as Roy Orbison The Spider spun her web again from scratch, in exactly the same place. We were overjoyed. Really, almost to tears of joy. So relieved. Then I realised that I owed Roy a massive apology. I am shit. And to be honest, what I would have looked like the time I gently poked her with the twig, is like the episode of Friends when they thought ugly naked guy was dead....
 |
| I swear I looked like this.... |
I can still feel what I felt that day, I was elated, just so, so happy to have more time with Roy. I also felt quite terrible about smashing up her web and probably stressing her out. With friends like me, who needs enemies! I was saying sorry to her all the time, and that triggered my next google search to know whether spiders can hear or not. I was glad to know that although they don't have ears, they seem to respond to sound, probably from vibrations. So I continued to apologise and say good morning every day.
I tell you this though, life with Roy became a heck of a lot more interesting after the regrettable incident - she gave me daily Proof of Life, which was smart on her part because she knew what was coming for her when she died - a blue plastic children's sandpit shovel that serves as our pooper scooper. Who wants that when they die?
After that, it seems like so many more fascinating things happened with Roy, which I also took as more than just her waving hello with one leg, and giving me the assurance I needed that she was still with me, but I felt that with her beginning to devour quite large snacks for days on end that she might be preparing for sex, babies, and maybe even actual death. Most female orb spiders will die in late Autumn after having babies and we were in summer. I documented everything she did because I knew time was ticking by. Roy was here for a good time, not a long time.
Roy caught and consumed this cricket one Saturday morning as I cheered her on. And every time she did something I learned more and more. I was delighted to be able to see her pedipalps in this image (after checking what the heck they are called) more googling, lol. Actually when I googled "how to spiders eat" the first result google gave me was how to eat Roy because apparently she tastes like patè and I was horrified. That's not what I meant Google!
Another snack, I was certain Roy was beginning to consume food almost like a bear preparing for hibernation - she needed energy for the big adventures before her - babies and death. I was excited but also aware that Roy wasn't going to be with us forever... so that's when I did a completely ridiculous and unnecessary thing... I designed a t-shirt with her on it.
I considered making a shirt that said "security by Roy Orbison the Spider" but we were having a state election and I couldn't resist the thought of wearing this shirt to the polling booth. I also had some stickers made with a white background. Vote for Roy Orbison The Spider!
When I took the very first photograph of Roy, I didn't know it would be the first of many and when I took the photograph above, I didn't know it would be the last photograph I ever took of her... but turns out... it was.
One morning I went outside and Roy was not there. The only time she was ever not in that web was the time I knocked her into the bush in an ill fated attempt to retrieve her body with a used pooper scooper. My heart sank. I examined the bush for any sign of her and here is what I found....
Genius that Roy is, she knew better than to leave me completely bereft by her sudden departure she left me her babies... which is not unusual her kind often fail to protect their egg sac and abscond or die after creating their first haven. I do think Roy probably died before I even found the egg sac, but certainly she will die this season if she has not already, and this is her eulogy.
A eulogy for a spider, because she came into my life, took my mind of the absolute insanity of caring for a dementia patient in my home, and gave me a reason to learn about as well as document nature, and she made me feel totally okay about my anti-romance stance. For the rest of my life I may never have the relationship with a spider that I've enjoyed with Roy - they come and they go, you see them once and never see them again, or you do but you have no way of knowing its the same one. Some of them are dangerous, but I've learned that I can be this involved, this absorbed with a spider and not have nightmares... not once.
And here are Roy's babies, life goes on, she has left me a legion of babies... some will perish, some may eat the others, some will float in the wind off to new homes, and maybe, just maybe one will make a home in the lavender bush, and the story will resume. Only time will tell.
Yesterday morning I found what looked like a blackberry in the web, but it is a teeming mass of baby orb spiders, if you look carefully you can see individual spiders with all their legs and stripes like their Mama. Today the blackberry is breaking up, the spiders disperse and begin to explore the world and its so exciting. I will have to be patient as once they disperse they are so tiny I'll never find them, but if, in time I find one or two have stayed in my garden, I will let you know.
