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Halloween

Halloween is a holiday that brings to mind creatures of the night such as bats and many spiders. These nocturnal creatures are ones we have some unease about because we rarely see them, encounter them by surprise in the dark, and often have little understanding of their role in nature. We often misinterpret their behavior and they sometimes leave us with a sense of fear of what they might do to us. Yes, tropical American vampire bats drink blood and in doing so can transmit disease to its victims. North American and most other bats are insect eaters that provide an important service in consuming mosquitos that can transmit diseases to the animals they bite. Most bats also consume large numbers of moths and other insects that feed on plants that our livestock or we depend on.

Pumpkins are also regularly associated with Halloween because of our uses of them hollowed out with a face carved into the empty “shell” and lighted with a candle inside on Halloween night. Pumpkins are an American plant that was grown as food by Native Americans. It was quickly put to use by early European settlers who found it a good substitute for rutabagas -- which some Irish ancestors had often hollowed out to hold a candle to serve as a night-time lantern.

When we encounter spiders at night we have usually walked into the web of a nocturnal orb-weaver – and it will usually immediately drop on a strand of web to get away from you – the creature that disrupted its efforts to get a meal of night-time insects. In the fall of the year these webs can be 2-3 feet in diameter. The spiders occupying them have grown all year and their web sizes have increased accordingly. They, too, are harmless to humans – and fascinating to watch. At the end of their night, these spiders often consume the web, thus recycling the materials used to make it. Other spiders – those active during the day, also reach their largest size in late fall and can build very large webs. In both nocturnal orbwevers and diurnal spiders such as the Golden-silk Orbweaver, it’s the female that is large and that builds the big web. The male is very tiny and hangs around near her web to get a chance to mate and a meal. On the Golden-silk Orbweaver photo, note the shed skin of the female to the left and the tiny legs of the male (that is attempting to mate with her while trying not to get eaten) extending out from behind the large female!