Neoscona arabesca, female

Sept. 9, 2005 -This female spider is in the process of taking down her web of the night before and eating the silk. Spider silk is a complex protein that takes a great deal of energy to manufacture, so rather than let it go to waste, these thrifty arachnids recycle it every morning, and spin a new web in the evening.

It's a fascinating process, and even having seen them do it several times, I cannot accurately say how they do it so efficiently. Suffice it to say they deconstruct the web by breaking the radial spokes and balling them up while holding the rest of the web in place while they eat the wad of silk. The Chicagoland area is experiencing a population explosion of these spiders. Our helpful television news reporters managed to report these harmless spiders may get in your hair. Idiots.