A very large spider web was observed in April 1998. The isolated web covered the vegetation over a distance of appr. 25 m. There were thousands of spiders in the web. Most belonged to Oedothorax retusus (Westring), a few to O. fuscus (Blackwall). The weather was not typical ballooning weather: a heavily clouded sky, some drizzel in the afternoon, a mean temperature of 8° C, and a maximum temperature of 10° C. Probably true “ballooning” did not take place, but the driving force behind the phenomenon must have been the same: an extremely high population density in a grassy bank along a path in this public park in the town of Groningen.
Additional Metadata | |
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Nieuwsbrief SPINED | |
CC BY 3.0 NL ("Naamsvermelding") | |
Organisation | EIS Kenniscentrum Insecten en andere ongewervelden |
P.J. van Helsdingen. (1998). Groot spinneweb in Groningen. Nieuwsbrief SPINED, 13, 5–7. |