As the unbearable humidity begins to disperse and a day at the beach involves increasingly less fun in the sun, it is time to make for the hills. Or the mountains, rather and enjoy some of Korea's beautiful countryside. In addition to the visor-clad ajumma or halmoni, there are a few other local ladies one should expect to see.
The first and most populous is Nephila clavata, known as 무당거미 (Mudangomi-witch spider) in Korean, Golden Orb spider in English and more interestingly ジョロウグモ or 絡新婦 (Jorōgumo -binding lady) in Japanese. She is a creature of Japanese folklore, a spider which can transform into a seductive woman in order to capture and eat her man, and after observing this beautiful yellow and black creature you can certainly sense the power of the female as she clouds over the short, stout males on their triple tiered web.
She spends late summer to mid autumn mating and before dying out in winter she leaves behind numerous egg sacks, each containing between 400-1500 eggs. Nephila derived from Ancient Greek to mean 'loves spinning' sums up this spider well and the Golden Orb name refers not to the spider's yellow colour, but to the colour of the silk spun to make the web. This silk is remarkably strong and not only survives the rainy season, but also builds massively adventurous webs that often span from tree to tree.
In amongst the myriad of Nephila webs, it is possible to spot something even more spectacular. A highly visible zig zag detail, often surrounding another, very interesting spider.
Argiope Amoena or St Andrew's Cross spider (due to its unique way of resting its legs in an 'X' shape) sits its yellow and black body majestically on its web, while stretching out its four pairs of brown legs together, with the jazzy zig zag detail following on from where the leg ends. At first glance I imagined this web 'writing'or stabilmentum to be a way to make the spider appear bigger and more threatening to predators, but the theories as to why it makes it seem to be endless. From reinforcing the web, to sending out a mating signal to the (again, smaller and much more insignificant looking)males.
Apparently E.B. White was so taken by the sight of this kind of web that he went on to write the children's classic, Charlotte's Web back in 1952.
Spiders, although not specifically Nephila or Argiope genera have always had a relationship with humans, from helping Mohammed escape the Christians and inspiring Robert the Bruce to defeat the English, to The Who's bassist, John Entwistle and his joke song come concert favourite 'Boris the Spider'.
Whether inspired or terrified just remember, 'If you want to live and thrive, let a spider stay alive'. They will kill the mosquitoes at the very least.
Posted by my very first guest blogger, 누구.
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