This is a web-kite assembled by a spider. Although it is difficult to see in the video, the kite is on a single strand of web about 11 feet long. About 9.5 feet down, there is a cluster of three pine needles held vertically in the web. This is a really heavy object for a spider to manipulate. About another 1.5 feet down, there is another cluster which is shaped like a vesica, or like the outline of two plates held lip to lip. This horizontal cluster is perfectly balanced, and is attached to the end of the kite by a semi-triangular doubled thread. I have never seen anything like this, and was astonished to discover it had been intentionally created by a spider. Its purpose may have been to draw an anchor thread across a gap in high wind (thus the weights) or to stabilize it. However it may also represent a sensing prosthesis, or… perhaps less probably… a toy. It is an extremely exceptional object; again, I have never seen anything even vaguely resembling it. I presume it must have been a relatively large spider that crafted it, perhaps an orb weaver, as I tested the weight of the attached needle clusters and it was heavy. I never imagined something like this would be possible for a spider to assemble, and even when looking at it felt a deep sense of wonder and bewilderment at the skillfulness apparently involved. This is not because I do not think insects and arachnids are intelligent or skillful — quite the opposite — but rather that I have never seen any example of webwork like this, nothing whatsoever in my experience resembles it. So I felt the sense of becoming aware of an ‘ordinary’ prodigy; something entirely new in my experience, yet entirely natural and perhaps more common than I suspect.

This is a web-kite assembled by a spider. Although it is difficult to see in the video, the kite is on a single strand of web about 11 feet long.

About 9.5 feet down, there is a cluster of three pine needles held vertically in the web. This is a really heavy object for a spider to manipulate. About another 1.5 feet down, there is another cluster which is shaped like a vesica, or like the outline of two plates held lip to lip. This horizontal cluster is perfectly balanced, and is attached to the end of the kite by a semi-triangular doubled thread.

I have never seen anything like this, and was astonished to discover it had been intentionally created by a spider. Its purpose may have been to draw an anchor thread across a gap in high wind (thus the weights) or to stabilize it. However it may also represent a sensing prosthesis, or… perhaps less probably… a toy.

It is an extremely exceptional object; again, I have never seen anything even vaguely resembling it. I presume it must have been a relatively large spider that crafted it, perhaps an orb weaver, as I tested the weight of the attached needle clusters and it was heavy. I never imagined something like this would be possible for a spider to assemble, and even when looking at it felt a deep sense of wonder and bewilderment at the skillfulness apparently involved. This is not because I do not think insects and arachnids are intelligent or skillful — quite the opposite — but rather that I have never seen any example of webwork like this, nothing whatsoever in my experience resembles it. So I felt the sense of becoming aware of an ‘ordinary’ prodigy; something entirely new in my experience, yet entirely natural and perhaps more common than I suspect.