How smart are spiders? Every up and coming web spinner needs to get a web spun so he/she can eat. Some lucky spiders spin in a workable corner and raise a good looking, bug catching web over night. Less lucky spiders try to spin a web from my eaves to my deck railing. It's a web too far, no spider has that much silk in his little bottom, plus people on the deck wreck the web by merely bending their elbows (as in lifting a beer can to their lips).
I watched a number of small junior spiders starting web spins. They were jumping off from my deck sun umbrella, into the air, trailing silk behind themselves. Could they know if the breeze would take them to a nearby anchoring point from which a successful web could be spun? I doubt it, I think they just leap off into the air and hope for the best.
So, I think the survival spiders, those that spin a good web, are the ones lucky enough to land on a nearby anchor spot when they leap into the unknown air. Most of 'em miss, and expend their limited supply of silk on blind alleys. Then they starve to death.
Which is too bad. I'm basically on the spider's side. They eat mosquitoes which is a very good thing and to be encouraged.
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