Charlotte and George

Remember this guy?

Turns out that he is probably a she, a female Araneas spider (from what I can tell).

Awesome NeighborTM Tim pointed out her presence this morning as she was (we thought) in the process of tearing down her web and reconstructing it up in George's top branches. Now, most of what I know about spiders comes from Charlotte's Web, which -- although wonderful (I highly endorse the unabridged recording narrated by the author) -- may not be the most accurate in terms of spider biology, what with the talking and the writing words into webs and all that. So I did a little Googling to learn more.

A search on "Minnesota spiders" directed to me the Common Spiders page of the U of M's extension service site (a treasure trove of info that I've often consulted on gardening matters), from which I was able to gather that our visitor is an orb spider, probably an Argiope (commonly known here as garden spiders) or Araneas (barn spiders -- and the same genus as Charlotte!).

After looking at a bunch of photos (and let me tell you that perusing photos of spiders is a fairly shiver-inducing endeavor), I think, based on its banded legs and duller color than is typically found on Argiopes, that it's an Araneas. I found more detail at Wikipedia, which explains that:

Like many other species of orb weavers, it takes down its web and rebuilds another web every evening.

So that fits with what we saw this morning. Regarding orb spiders in general, Wikipedia states that they aren't harmful to humans, except in defense. Rather, the main danger is the one I was first concerned about:

The average orb web is practically invisible, and it is easy to blunder into one and end up covered with a sticky web.

Ew. So although I'm happy to have Ms. Areneus around catching less-welcome visitors, I think I'll need to keep an eye on where she spins.

Finally, I love that Wikipedia includes this:

This spider was made well-known in the book, Charlotte's Web, with a particularly interesting point that the spider's full name is Charlotte A. Cavatica, and the barn spider's scientific name is Araneus cavaticus. Also, one of Charlotte's daughters, after asking what her mother's middle initial was, names herself Aranea.