Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Roscoe

One day in September of 2012, I found a baby orb weaver spider on my front porch. Over the next year, I watched this baby get her first meal, survive a freezing winter, grow to adulthood, find a mate, make an egg sac, and finally, I saw her crawl slowly away under a bush to die. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with this beautiful Cat-Faced Orb-Weaver, and I cried my eyes out when she died. Maybe just a spider to most, she was my little friend, and I missed her terribly in the months that followed. In fact, revisiting her pictures now pulls hard on my heart strings. I feel like I should be embarrassed that I feel sad as I look at all the pictures I took. How can a person become attached to a spider? I did though, and I feel pretty darn lucky that I got to know a spider well enough to cry over its death. This is a picture of Roscoe's children, hatching out of the egg sac she made and protected until she was too weak to do so. Seeing all of these kids brings a tear to my eye. I wished that some of them would have stayed around, but they all left after a few days. What a great experience it was to know my friend Roscoe. :) If you'd like to see Rocoe's story in pictures and tales, please visit her album here My Friend Roscoe

I'd forgotten all about this picture until I was looking through my images to see what I could use for my 1-10 Project. This beauty is a Cat-Faced Orbweaver, just like Roscoe Frank McCrawlerson, the spider that stayed in our porch doorway. This one I found on our back porch one evening, crawling on a piece of plastic. There are five others doing this project with me! Make sure to check out their streams and see what they've been doing with their 1-10 Project! 1-10 Project Buddies Chrissy Valfal (Valerie) Jenny McIntyre Rachel Lynne Explored on September 15, 2014. Highest placement, #3.

MANY, MANY pictures above to show Roscoe from when I first met her until today... I checked on Roscoe last night and this morning, and she was near her egg sac each time. This afternoon, she was further out, legs held closely to her body, sitting quietly (see the inset image above). Then, at about 4pm, I let the dogs out and Roscoe was gone. I looked everywhere on the walls but she wasn't there. Just before I went back into the house, I thought about what she would do if she needed to crawl to a dark place to die. I looked down and checked the cement...and there she was. I could barely see her because she was so perfectly camouflaged with the colors of the stone, but I noticed something moving, which gave her away. Making her way slowly over the ground, she was just about to the edge of the porch. It was amazing that I spotted her before she was gone forever. I dashed into the house and back out, and she'd gone to the edge and crawled off the side, so I went around to the front in the garden and I saw her making her way to the edge of the cement and wanting to crawl down. She hung there for a moment, and that's when I took this picture. She wanted to go down but she had no more silk to lower herself, so after a few seconds she dropped into the leaves below and sat for a moment. I reached over and gently petted her soft, velvety abdomen, the only time I've ever touched her, and I said goodbye to my friend. After I left, I checked once more, and she had crawled out of sight. Rest in peace, dear Roscoe.

3 more pictures above ! :) Last night I went to let the dogs out before watching our evening show and going to bed. As I always do, I looked up to the left side of our doorway where Roscoe, my wonderful orb weaver friend lives. Exclaiming in surprise, I burst out, "OH ROSCOE!!! YOU'RE MAKING AN EGG SAC!!!!" I charged upstairs to yell excitedly to Steve, "ROSCOE MADE HER EGG SAC!!!!!!" and before he could barely utter a surprised, "WOW!!", I zoomed back downstairs to continue watching her work, totally transfixed. Moving slowly all over her enormous egg sac, Roscoe dabbed strands of sticky silk. "Wow...you must have been working on this all day," I murmured to her affectionately. "It's so beautiful and HUGE!!" In fact, her egg sac is larger than she is, and I also noticed two more things. Roscoe was so skinny now--instead of being huge and plump, she was now empty of all the eggs that had been growing inside her bloated abdomen. And I also saw how exhausted she was. "My dear, dear girl," I cooed softly to her. "What a masterpiece you have made." She moved so slowly, dabbing and dabbing more silk to finish her grand achievement. I got my camera and flash and took a few pictures, but I waited until midnight to get the picture here so that I could make it my Picture of the Day. The following image (both insets) were taken before midnight, while she was still finishing the last touches of her egg sac. One of the insets shows her dabbing silk onto her sac, which was very interesting to watch. I have known Roscoe for over a year now, from when she was barely a quarter inch in size, and I've watched her go through hibernation (brumation) and grow into a magnificent, beautiful lady, with an abdomen of almost 1" in diameter! I know that these spiders only live for one season, and I was feeling very sad because it looked as if she wouldn't be producing eggs, though I saw two different suitors visit the area. As September turned to October, and then to November, I watched her with quiet worry. My concern was unfounded, because she has just finished her gift to me...hundreds of unborn Roscoe babies who I will adore as much as I have adored her. I know that Roscoe's days are now truly numbered. She could live another day or maybe as much as a month...but I expect she will die within a week. I will miss her terribly, but I will be there to take pictures of her babies and maybe some of them will stay, just like Charlotte's children!! :) I will keep you informed as the days pass... Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in 1952 by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live. Wikipedia: Charlotte's Web Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985), was an American writer. He was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the English language style guide, The Elements of Style, which is commonly known as "Strunk & White". He also wrote books for children, including Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan. Charlotte's Web was voted the top children's novel in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, not for the first time. Wikipedia: E.B. White Explored on November 13, 2013. Highest placement, page 9.

2 images above in notes (same as on main picture) This picture shows Roscoe as she was still working on her egg sac. She must have started it many hours before, as it's larger than she is and she was completely exhausted from her efforts. Isn't she amazing?! I think she's just wonderful and I feel so blessed that I got to spend more than a whole year getting to know her. Would you like to watch a video which shows the life cycle of the orb weaver spider? There is an awesome guy over on YouTube named Bob McAndrews, better known as "Bob The Spider Hunter" , and he made a wonderful video which shows the life cycle of a species related to this spider. He is a fine instructor and, like me, strives to both educate and entertain, with the hopes to illuminate the beauty and gentle nature of spiders. Before you watch this video, please be warned: Bob allows the starring spider to crawl on his hands, so if this will make you run screaming into the night, you may want to prepare yourself! Please try to watch it though, it's very fascinating, educational and will show you that these beautiful spiders are not to be feared. :) Orb Weaver: Cycle of Life

1 picture and a few text notes above! If you've been visitng my stream for a while, you may know about the darling little spider that came to live next to our front door on our porch. I decided to have a naming contest, and the winning name was Roscoe Frank McCrawlerson! From a wee 1/4" in size, I have watched little Roscoe survive hibernation (brumation) through a freezing winter and then become active again in March, immediately capturing food! Soon Roscoe began to grow and shed skin after skin. It became evident by its size that Roscoe was not a male but indeed a female, and she has continued to grow to her present size, which is about 2" in diameter (her body is about 3/4"). She is truly magnificent and beautiful with lovely markings in shades of cream, orange and rust. Though it makes me feel sad, I know that Roscoe will die this summer. However, before she does, I hoped that she'd find a mate and build her greatest masterpiece: a web eggsac that she will fill with her fertilized eggs. Since she seems to be full-sized now, I figured that she had begun sending out pheremones to attract a mate. I've been looking every day for a male....and today I FOUND HIM!!!!! In fact, I wasn't even sure the spider I saw was alive, so I reached up to where it was above our door at the ceiling, and lightly touched it. WOO HOO, he sprang to life and moved a few steps! Taking a careful look, I was fascinated to see that he is about one third her size, about 3/4" in diameter. More slender in shape, but the same coloring, he features the characteristic "boxing gloves" palps of a male spider. FABULOUS!!! The pictures I have are not awesome...he was in a place that made it difficult to get a good angle, but you can see his palps in two of the images. (Roscoe is in the upper left picture and she's waiting for him in the corner of the alcove!) As morbid as it may seem, I don't know if she'll kill him and eat him after they've mated. It's possible he'll get to leave afterwards. It's also possible that she'll reject him and kill him without mating. Time will tell. I'll keep an eye on them tonight...so far he's about 2 feet away from her, waiting for the right time to move in. Cross your fingers that everything goes well! I am hoping that in the end, at least one of her babies will stay here, just like Charlotte's babies in Charlotte's Web! Oh dear...I am going to get teary thinking about my friend dying... :( :( :( I know she's "just" a spider, but darn it...she's been a really cool little buddy...

Every day I visit Roscoe several times to see how she's doing. This is the position she's in during the daytime while she rests and waits for nighttime. Her species is nocturnal, so when it gets dark, I will often find her building a web and hanging out in the center of it. She's slowly getting bigger! Did you know that some spiders have a kind of antifreeze in their blood so they don't die from the cold. I was concerned about winter approaching and wondered what will happen when it gets really cold. Apparently, this little girl should have been born in the springtime, but instead, she was probably born in August, so I will keep my fingers crossed that she'll survive!

After I took pictures of the Pacific Tree Frog, I peeked over to see what Roscoe was up to, and as luck would have it, a beetle had just flown into HER web (yes, he's a she!) and within a minute, she'd wrapped it up and sat with a foot lightly touching it to sense any movement. She will wait for it to die and then have a tasty feast! By the way, she is getting bigger and bigger and eating like a piggy! She eats 3-4 insects every day, maybe more that I haven't seen. I don't know if she's attracted a mate yet but I have been checking every day. She needs all the energy she can get because she needs to grow to her full size and make an egg sac before she dies in a couple of months. :*( I am trying to prepare myself...I know Roscoe is "just" a spider...but she's been here since the beginning of September and I've watched her grow from a itty bitty 1/4" spider, so small I could barely see her, and I kept and eye on her while she hibernated all winter until March. And now...WOW, she's so big and beautiful, and growing bigger every week! She's so cool. It will be so sad when she dies, but if all goes well, she'll have had a whole egg sac of babies and maybe one or two of them will hang around, just like Charlotte's babies!! I hope so...that would be wonderful!

This is Rocoe's moulted exoskeleton! Isn't this fascinating?!!

This morning I took a peek at my darling little spider friend who lives on our porch and noticed that during the night she'd shed her skin! (There is a picture in a note above) This molting is actually called "ecdysis", and is something that happens in many invertebrates. Roscoe continues to grow and although I keep called him a male at first, this spider is most definitely a female, as the males of this species are much smaller. She will continue to grow and is probably sending out pheremones with a hopeful mate to appear sometime soon! Let's cross our fingers, I'm very excited about the upcoming egg sac! :D If you would like to know more about spiders molting, Wiki has a good page about this process here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecdysis

This is another picture I took of Roscoe as a baby, isn't she the cutest?! :D

I was delighted to see that my new little friend could catch food! :)

STORY TIME!!!!! SHE MADE IT!!!!! SHE MADE IT!!!! Roscoe Frank McCrawlerson* has survived her hibernation (brumation) through a freezing winter!! And here she sits triumphantly upon a moth four times her size that she caught, tied up, hoisted up to her spot where she lives, and is guarding, proud and victorious! HOORAY, HOORAY for my little friend!!!! *does a Snoopy Dance all over the room* *I discovered in time that Roscoe was actually a female, but kept her name as it was given. I have changed all gender to reflect that she is a female. I met Roscoe back at the beginning of September when I noticed her tiny 1/4" form in the center of a web she built just next to our front door on our porch! I was instantly smitten by this adorable little spider, and I took lots of pictures of her over the next month or two. However, I began to worry about her because winter was fast approaching. I learned that spiders can survive a freezing winter and will sometimes hibernate without dying. Spiders, like many other creatures (including frogs), have a kind of anti-freeze in their blood and this is how they can stay alive when other animals die. When the temperatures began to dip into the freezing zone, Roscoe stopped making her orb-shaped webs and sat in her little nook with legs pulled in, never moving. But I didn't think she was dead, and I took a peek at her every single day, hoping but with a worry in my heart. I know she's "just" a spider, but I love this little lady and I really wanted her to make it!! The months ticked off... November... December... January... February... and then March came and just when I began to worry that she might possibly be dead, I found her in the middle of a new web she'd made one night a few days ago!! I was so excited!! MY LITTLE BUDDY WAS ALIVE!!!! We had some flightless fruit flies in a jar, and I sprinkled a few in my hand and threw them at the web, hoping at least one would stick. DIRECT HIT!! One of them stuck and Roscoe POUNCED!! YAYYYYY!!!!! Oh how happy I was that she had a snack! Yesterday I tossed more flies in and she got one to eat! YES!! Last night I let the dogs out and took a peek...I saw something twirling near her spot, and I nearly yelled in delight! Roscoe was riding on this moth, which was twisting and twirling from a strong reinforced strand of web that Roscoe fashioned, and she was running all over the moth, which was completely encased in web! Just INCREDIBLE!!! How such a small spider can overpower a large moth and keep it from escaping...it's amazing!! I checked an hour later and she'd reeled in his prize and was sitting just as she is now, waiting for the moth to die before starting in on her magnificent feast! I took some quick pictures but I was hoping she'd still be there at midnight so I could take pictures for my 365 today...and just like a good friend, she waited for me to get my pictures!!! WHAT A PAL!!!! This morning I looked and she'd already released the moth's body from her web, and I found it below, an abandoned husk. I cooed at Roscoe, who was back on her spot, and told her how happy I was that she'd made it through the winter just fine!! I've been smiling all day long! So happy!!! John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.[6] He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life".[citation needed] He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf. Wkipedia: Jack London

Would you just LOOK at how GORGEOUS Roscoe has become?! As a baby, she was shades of beige and just a bit of orange tones. In the past couple of weeks, a lot of things have been happening...first of all, she's getting bigger and bigger and bigger! Below you'll see a picture of her as a little baby next to a dime. Today she's almost the size of a dime!! And take a look at the coloring!!! Lovely tones of orange, russet and yellow against a background of dove-beige. And wow, she's eating like there's no tomorrow, quickly tying up everything that should be unlucky enough to get caught in her web. Last night I saw two mosquito hawks and a large moth in her web and boy does she zoom all over the place when she's busy with a new victim! Totally amazing to see. It's going to be heartbreaking when she dies sometime this summer...I really love this little lady, but I know she will only live a year. Who knows though...maybe she'll make a big egg sac and I'll get to watch all of her babies hatch and find their way out into the world! It's all very exciting to me and I feel so privileged to have this special spider next to our front door and get to see it grow up and live its life. :) By the way, if I'm correct, Roscoe should eventually grow to the size of a quarter, her abdomen about the size of a dime. She's a Cat-Faced Orb Weaver, and that's how large the other ones I've seen are.

You may have noticed that I have a growing fascination with spiders. Who in their right mind would keep a Black Widow spider captive for several weeks just to observe it?! :D I find spiders totally fascinating and I love taking pictures of them because they are so cool looking! The other evening I was looking around on the walls on our porch while the dogs were out doing their business, and I noticed something tiny that seemed like it might be a tiny spider. Peering closer, I saw that it was a tiny orb weaver spider that had strung a web next to the front door! I grabbed the camera and took some shots without the flash, and this picture is one that I think turned out really neat. The glow from our porch light gave the spider a yellow color and the background colors give this image a kind of dreamy quality. I really like that I got a shallow depth of field which included its eyes and parts of its legs too, along with some strands of glimmering web to give just enough information to show the story. Once I got a look on my computer, I recognized with delight that this tiny spider is a baby garden orb weaver, which will grow in size from its current body size of 1/8" to a body size of about 3/4"!! I am certain because I know of several adults that I love to visit every few days and this baby is a miniature version!. HELP ME PICK A NAME!! :D If this baby likes living in its current location, I will get to watch it grow up, and because I'll be seeing it every day, I think it's only right to give it a proper name! :D I thought maybe you guys might have a suggestion or two, so please feel free to list a name that you like, and I'll make a decision which name wins! :) (By the way, I have no clue about gender, but I don't care...I would be happy to choose any good name, so give me your best ideas! :D

Thanks to all of you who helped come up with some cute names! Here they are in alphabetical order: Biscuit • Charlotte • Crawly McCrawlerson • Downspider • Eensie-Weensy • Flo • Frank • George • Gold Man • Golden Spider • Goldie • Goldie Doorsie • Goldy Spidy • Joe • Neatto Netto • Nitty Gritty Netto-Grosso • Roscoe • Roxie • Silence • Wacky Spidy • Wonder Webmaker I loved them all, but after hours of careful consideration, our darling doorway spider has now been named... Roscoe Frank McCrawlerson!! Hooray!!! :D Honorable mentions to: Biscuit: can't choose this because this is one of my parrot's nicknames! Charlotte: I love this name but this spider will grow up to look very different than the Charlotte we all know and love ...this one will have prickly hair all over its legs, and that's not very lady-like, is it?! :D (BTW, Charlotte's Web was one of my favorite books as a kid and I loved both movies!) Flo: I like this very much, but since my first two favorites were male names, our little spider might be confused having both boy and girl names! :D George: can't pick this because this is the name we call all the Blue-Belly Lizards we see running around! :D Gold names: They are all so nice but you'll see that in proper lighting, this spider does not look golden, though he or she IS quite a golden treasure to me! :) Joe: LOL, Joe, you may not name a spider after yourself! :D Bad Joe! Go stand in the corner! :D Roxie: I love this name but you also picked my favorite name and it's important to share! :D By the way, I uploaded another picture of Roscoe showing his size compared to a dime...I think you'll all be pretty amazed how tiny he is!!

I thought it would be really fun to compare Roscoe to a dime, so I stuck one to the wall right next to her and took a picture! (I moved the dime over just a bit and made the background black) I just love this picture because it really shows how small and cute this little girl is! :D

2 more pictures in notes above! I originally planned to take this pictures with Portia, the beautiful Golden Orbweaver who lives next to our porch, but the pictures didn't even come close to turning out. Portia wasn't impressed by me spraying misty water on her and I didn't want to frighten her so I went inside to think of what to do. HELLO? ROSCOE'S WEB! Every day, Roscoe hangs out up in the corner of her nook, but the beautiful orb web she built the night before is usually still intact during the day. How perfect. No spider to disturb! I sprayed the web with water and grabbed the camera with my Twin-Lite flash attachment in place and took a bunch of pictures! It was really, REALLY windy, so even though I was using a flash, I had problems with blur in many pictures. I'd wait for the web to be still and take pictures but at macro scale, even a breeze will make the subject move enough to be blurry. However, I did get a few nice ones, including this one! :)