Mystery of the stabilimentum

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. My friend Ann Nolte has a part of her patio garden where about a dozen of the really big writing spiders, who put that zigzag stabilimentum pattern in their webs, have made their home. We spent a while watching them the other evening. One theory for their going to the trouble to weave this pattern is that it reflects ultra violet light and that light is particularly attractive to insects. But since the silk they use to use to create that pattern isn’t sticky, an insect caroming into it would bounce off, so that idea doesn’t hold bugs so to speak. Those awful house flies are particularly attracted to uv light and in chicken houses with lots of manure and lots of flies uv light traps turned on at night, are indispensable.