Picture this: I am in the middle of last-minute food preparation for hosting our son and daughter-in-law鈥檚 wedding reception party in our garden and John comes running in.
鈥淨uick! Grab your camera! I found a spider for you.鈥�
Naturally, I dropped what I was doing and raced straight out into the garden with said camera. Special photo opportunities in the garden always, always win out. And boy, am I glad I did!
Since I do not suffer from arachnophobia, I can truthfully exclaim, 鈥渨hat a beauty.鈥�
Almost tarantula-like in proportions and hairiness鈥nd very colourful. Large yellow abdomen, pale pinky-beige sternum and head, and wonderful bands on its legs of alternating mahogany brown and creamy white.
This was the first sighting of this particular spider in our garden, although, truthfully, as I delved into my research on identifying the creature, I think this species has always been here; we just have not seen it until this summer.
Attempting proper identification, I am certain this spider is an orb-weaver and decently certain it is in the Araneus genus. However, there are about 1,500 different species in this particular spider genus so pinpointing an exact ID is proving a little tricky.
As near as I have been able to discover, 鈥渙ur鈥� spider is a pumpkin spider, or Araneus trifolium. (Also known as the shamrock spider.) Colour can be highly variable in this species, ranging from white to yellow to orange or brown on the abdomen, but some of the other features on our spider do not quite match the description so the research continues.
I am positive this one is a female, given its size 鈥� the body is close to an inch in length, without including the legs. Males, which are more active in the garden over a longer period, are just a third the size of the female. Being smaller, they are not easily identified properly unless you happen to spot them in their web. Orb-weaver spiders typically hang upside down in the centre of their web and males have an elongated abdomen instead of the round body of the female.
The females usually make their presence known in August and through the fall, when they are actively seeking a mate and intent on laying eggs for next year鈥檚 population. Orb-weaver females can lay several hundred to a thousand eggs and will actively guard them until winter cold kills them. New spiderlings will emerge when warm weather returns in the spring, if they survive the foraging of over-wintering bird species.
While I am on the subject of proper species identification, I am also trying to pinpoint the brown moth responsible for laying the eggs of the tomato cutworm. This pest was possibly incorrectly mentioned in a previous column as a tomato hornworm, which I am pretty sure we do not have in our greenhouse. The four specimens I have caught 鈥� and dispensed with 鈥� so far this year are more assuredly the variegated cutworm, Peridroma saucia.
These are a nasty pest because of their habit of eating holes in your green tomatoes, and doing it under cover of darkness. Come daylight, they typically hide in the soil at the base of the tomato plants, although if foliage is sufficiently thick enough, they sometimes will remain on the plant, which is how I spotted the ones I nabbed.
As the larvae grow, and their appetites increase, they tend to make larger holes. Ultimately by the fourth and fifth instar stage, they will eat their way right into the centre of the tomato, where they will hang out until they are ready to pupate, and overwinter in the soil. Definitely must destroy all the larvae now before they disappear to create next year鈥檚 destructive population!
Leslie Cox co-owns Growing Concern Cottage Garden in Black Creek. Her website is at www.duchessofdirt.ca and her column appears every second Thursday in the Record.
