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In the middle of the day when the temperature was high, some shiny drops of water caught my attention. At a closer look I noticed that is was a web build on the ground (15*15 cm) that seemed to capture the moist. Going through my pictures I sam that I caught the spider responsible for this as well :) (pic 2-3)
High altitude mixed woodland (prim. Acasia bushes) and grassland. The web was built on moist areas like mud holes.
There were several of these webs in the same area. I dont understand why a spider would benefit from water, but there must be a good reason for it...
Spotted on Jul 14, 2013
Submitted on Jul 14, 2013
5 Comments
I see this kind of thing in my house every day, but it is over the grass. Spiders controem their webs very close to grass, because there are a lot of small things that are jumping on the grass. Then it rains overnight. In the morning, I see these droplets on the web.
NehemiahBrandySteinbrecher, thank you for that link. It was very interesting, but I could not find that spider. I will keep on looking :)
Yes Silver Viper, drinking is a good assumption. It could also be that insects wom needs water lo lay eggs are drawn to that web. I hope I will find out one day :)
I found this site that has one photo of a spider the same as the one you spotted- but I cannot tell if it is similar. Perhaps their index will help you ID this. http://www.sntc.org.sz/biodiversity/sdsp...
Maybe some insects are looking for small amounts of water they can consume without drowning. Maybe the spider took advantage of that? Just an idea...