Spiders on a pane
Wanna see an old guy move fast?
Put a spider near me.
Imagine the personal courage required for me to snap the above spider portrait on the evening of June 18th in downtown Minneapolis.
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I was certain it was part of an invasion of a new, deadly poisonous, eight-legged critter.
Apparently not.
According to Emily Tenczar's web page devoted to Upper Midwest spiders, it's a harmless "orb weaver."
Thinking back on it I realize this one is probably part of some sort of early hatch. Over the past few years this location near the Mississippi River seemed commandeered by spiders.
They and their descendants appear to be engaged in some sort of generational effort to shroud the building in their webbing.
Moving for a moment to the topic of insects, the six-legged invaders, we're still waiting and watching for the mayfly hatch. The insect's misleading name fails to note that mayflies hatch through the summer and in such abundance that my colleague Paul Huttner a couple years back detected them on radar.
We apparently should be assured by the presence of these critters. After all, they are a meal for others in the food chain. Mayflies, in particular, are a sign the river's water quality is improving.