As the old African proverb goes, "When spider webs unite, they can halt even a lion."
People are traveling from all over to Lake Tawakoni State Park which is located about 50 miles outside of Dallas, TX…The new attraction is being called a “creepy canopy”, an aberration of nature, a dream for researchers and a nightmare for arachnophobics.
Stretched across 200 yards …across all kinds of trees …a new kind of web has formed. Spiders have converged on the edge of the lake and a new kind of web has been spinning in the trees.
Researchers say they believe thousands of spiders from different species worked together to make one large, all-encompassing web - unusual from the traditional individual webs that normally would be woven. The attention of researchers, sightseers, and phobics nationwide has turned to the "impossible web".
"The webs were just streaming in and out through the tops of the trees," Kim Feuerbacher of Rockwall wrote detailing the development of the web. "We could not get off that trail fast enough. It looked just like a spider would have jumped from tree to tree with a can of silly string." Researchers took samples of the spiders in late August and Allen Dean, an entomologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, helped identify them. He found 12 spider families. Among what was identified: tetragnathidae, funnel web weavers, sac spiders, orb weavers, mesh web weavers, wolf spiders, pirate spiders, jumping spiders and low-jawed orb weavers, according to the researchers' report.
"Spiders generally are cannibalistic and keep their webs distinct," Dean said. "We're not sure what started the initial webbing . . . but there probably have been thousands of spiders working on the web. Mother Nature hasn't helped. Three times wind and rain have torn it down. Three times thousands of spiders worked together to rebuild it.
No one is certain what started this unique teamwork of the spiders…and no one can be certain where the web will end. But tonight in the moonlight the spiders will continue to spin and spin and spin their tangled webs together.
"Arachnophobia" comes from the Greek words, "arachne", meaning "spider", and "phobos", meaning "a fear.
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Arachne was a beautiful Greek maiden. She studied weaving under Athena. When her skills became legendary and her work was acclaimed, Archne refused to share the spotlight with Athena, who became bitter that a mere mortal was receiving all the attention.
She tricked Archne into a weaving contest. Athena was furious when she realized that the student had surpassed the teacher . Horrified after facing the wrath of Athena, Archne hung herself. In a backhanded apology the Goddess sprinkled a magic potion onto Arachne, turning her into a spider, so she could keep her weaving skills.
