I was out for a walk along the Eramosa River in Guelph with a pal on New Years Day, when she lifted a log and showed me some strange white patches along it. We both recognized them from our walk a couple of days before. I guessed by the appearance of them, being small, white and silken-like, with many around, that they were likely egg cases of some small invertebrate, but I didn’t know who may have made them. I also wasn’t certain about egg case, but it seemed a likely guess.

White, circular with a thin shallow dome constructed of webbing got me wondering who may have created this? I decided that this find, like a lot of the small wonders of the world would be worth researching a bit and recording a show about.

Happy 2025!

To learn more :
Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. Stackpole Books, 2010.
Common Spiders of North America by Richard A Bradley. University of California Press, 2013.
Further Studies on the Activities of Araneads, II by Thomas H. Montgomery, Jr. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. 61, No. 3 pp. 548-569, 1909.
The Spider Subfamiliy Castianerinae of North and Central America by Jonathan Reiskind. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol. 138 num. 5, 1969.
Spiders of North America by Sarah Rose. Princeton Field Guides, 2022.
Hearing in a Jumping Spider by Princeton University, 2016. (video from youtube.com detailing Jumping Spider trichobotheria and perception of sound)
Spiders of Toronto : A guide to their remarkable world by City of Toronto. 2012. (pdf)