When we walk during late summer relatively sunny trekking road in Yokohama’s parks and citizen forest, we can encounter webs of Nephila Clava. When it matured, from the “front” the bug often has long 8 legs of black and yellow stripe, and an oblong body with pale green and yellow ikat pattern. The side of its belly shows strips of crimson red. That flashy spider is “she.” She lives in a large yellowish and complicated web. Normally, her house is 3-dimensional where the center is her adobe, and supporting 2 planes sandwiches her main domain with angle. To know it is Nephila Clava, we can just check if she has striking red lines in her belly, and her elaborate web structure. In late summer, she is still relatively petit. But she grows larger and larger almost daily, and by mid-October many are at least 5cm long, or some can even reach to 8cm from its front toe to the tail toe. Also, by mid-October, she has her partner, or a group of “worshippers,” far smaller male individuals which live in her web, but never take the center. It’s like she is a superstar with several boy-groupies hovering around her. They mate while she is in her final shedding to be a matured lady, or during her meal time. Otherwise, she eats male solicitors which approached her carelessly while she was waiting for her meal to be caught by her web. Nephila Clava is called Joroh-gumo in Japanese. Standard moniker of “Joroh” is “女郎” that means a classic prostitute. But, another Chinese character for “Joroh” is “上臈” that was a job title of the highest ranking court-lady who hovered in a backstage of Japanese national politics. Both female types could be considered as “men-eaters.” (Oh, so typical dichotomy of traditional femininity in Japan …) OK, OK, OK, so we have these showy spider ladies here and there in autumn forests of Yokohama.
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| A Nephila Clava in Niiharu Citizen Forest. I found her this November on the ground. Maybe she’s preparing for eggs … |
Boyfriend-eating Nephila Clava has her own reason of her cannibalism. She is almost blind. When a pray was caught by her web, she catches the vibration her meal makes via her silk, and moves toward it to eat. She has to eat to be big enough for laying eggs, no matter what. If a reckless male makes unnecessary move, that’s simply a signal for her food, and so “a girl eats a boy” moment. Actually, I have heard we can play with the spider by using her behavior. A web of Nephila Clava has sticky lateral threads, and non-sticking vertical silks. Please bring your tuning fork, vibrate it, and transfer the wave of “C” to a vertical thread of Joro-gumo. Surprise! She immediately responds to your calling! Well, we tried this mischief, and found if we made a sort of noise, like “Hey, Naomi, here is a web! Yeah, the vertical thread is not sticky, really (and he flipped the web),” the spiders did not respond. Come to think of it, finding a meal is a serious matter … the bug can know our joke instantaneously. Lessons learned. We approached webs quietly, vibrated the fork, and put it calmly to the vertical silk. BAM! Spiders ran so quickly to our tuning fork. Very interestingly, they turned their 8 legs within 1 or 2 seconds after feeling the trembles, and returned to their original position. Maybe, they can differentiate real shuddering their pray makes and a mechanical vibration by a tuning fork. Clever girls.
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| A web
of a Nephila Clava, near Niiharu
Citizen Forest. Their web is VERY large, and shining. |
Webs of spiders are interesting. Take Linyphiidae family. They are tiny, but construct seemingly dense web spreading like a semi-transparent sheet over box hedge. The structure is a very flat frustum so that they are called Sara-gumo サラグモ in Japanese; “Sara 皿 = soup plate,” got it? They are waiting for their pray-bugs flying up from bushes or a gentle stream beneath. The web is made of very thin silk, and often invisible from below, which makes the home of the spider superb hunting gear. Crafty. Maybe, our ancestors watched the way spiders behave, and felt a similar wonder of mine. “They are so clever, and exotically beautiful.” Hence, some become arachnophobia … A strangely beautiful and clever thing is dangerous, being it a spider, or a human, isn’t it? Yeah, some spiders have deadly venom. Quite luckily, I have not encountered either a spider or a web that is fatally toxic for humans, at least yet.
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| A web of Linyphiidae |
I found spiders cute. Take Jumping spiders; kawaii, although they do not make webs. They are equipped with lovely round eyes that give them a good view for their pray. … I personally found Aragog of Harry Potter is a giant version of a jumping spider … woops, no, they must be of tarantula! Jumping spiders are crawling around us, and jump to catch their pray if they find one. Carrhotus xanthogramma (Neko-haetorigumo in Japanese) of jumping spiders’ family jump to their kindred as well to fight when they find them nearby. In Yokohama and Kawasaki, when we had lots of forests like until the 1960s, it was kids’ play to find Neko-haetori, and let them fight each other in a cardboard box kids brought in a forest. The game was called “Honchi Sumo ほんち相撲.” In Niiharu Citizen Forest, when Lovers of Niiharu hold Kids’ Forest Day of Spring and Summer, we call for Honchi Sumo Tournament, provided kids can find Neko-haetori … My senior lovers said “2018 was not good for Neko-haetori. We could not find enough of them for 2018 Spring Kids’ Day ... You know, it was so easy before to find Neko-haetori anywhere in Yokohama …” Having a tournament of jumping spiders was actually a pastime of rich merchants of Edo (Tokyo) during the 18th century. It was called “Zashiki Taka 座敷鷹” (= “Falconry in a parlor”) where people let their pet jumping spiders catch flies of artificially trimmed wings. The more fries a spider caught, the stronger the spider-sumo wrestler was. The champion jumping spider was traded at exorbitant prices. I guess their cute eyes were also attractive to the wealthy business people at that time.
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| A
scene of Honchi Sumo in 2017 Spring Niiharu
Kid’s Day. I would say some kids are more skillful to find Neko-haetori than the others … |
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| Neko-haetori in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林. It is having a breakfast. |
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| Argiope minuta of Argiope family. Argiope can be found easily in all over Japan (if you look), next common to this week’s protagonist, Nephila Clava. Among the family this species is relatively less-sighted. It was in Yadoriki Water Source Foreset this September. Cute, isn’t it? |
In Yokohama’s forests of mid-November, the time for spiders is almost up. Nephila Clava is having a time of blowing. Females lay eggs on the surface of trees or buildings in late autumn, and die soon after. The eggs overwinter and babies come out in spring. I always remember the final moment of Charlotte in autumn, and imagine Japanese spiders having a conversation with somebody around them, just like Wilbur and Charlotte. The spiders are tiny creatures, but would be very clever, and kind. They might bring someday a web saying “TERRIFIC!” in front of me in a forest, mightn’t they? It’s a fun to walk silently in forests of autumn dreaming such moment, even if the forest is just next to a gigantic complex of condos, like Niiharu Citizen Forest.
If you find an environmental issues
in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation
Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
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