Spiders and their beautiful spiderwebs

During my long life as a photographer, there are some subjects that I am passionate about, and one of them, although controversial for some people, is one of my favorites: spiders and especially their beautiful webs. There are two kinds of spiders: those that spin webs and those that camouflage themselves and attack their prey. 

The former hunt small insects such as mosquitoes, butterflies, and bees; the hunters can attack larger prey such as crickets and, even in some cases, lizards and frogs, small mammals, and birds (never humans). Cobwebs can be flat to catch flying insects or cone-shaped, where they catch insects that fall from trees.

Many spiders spin a new web each night, while a smaller percentage repair them. That is why the best time to see them is early morning because many are newly built. The spider web thread is more robust than a steel thread of the same gauge and is also elastic and biodegradable. Many spiders even eat their web when they no longer need it to recycle the proteins used to produce their thread.

Arachnophobia is the irrational fear of spiders, the most common phobia, and around 3% of people suffer from it. There are more than 40,000 species of spiders, and although most produce venom, this is aimed at immobilizing their tiny prey; humans are too big for them and are not interested in us. Of the 40,000 species, only 50 can be poisonous enough to cause a mild skin reaction, and fewer than 20 can be dangerous to humans.