News & Notes 663:Van Gogh’s Nests
“Arachnology is still in its infancy compared to the breadth and depth of entomological research in India. Spiders receive relatively little attention from the conservation community” (M.Swaminathan, in the book: “Spiders of India”, printed in India, 2009, p.V)
Vincent van Gogh started his career in the art at the age of 27 ( in the 19th century) and he had a very short life – 37 years. In the last years of his life he was sick – a mental illness. In his paintings the birds’ nests and human’s nests were very often present. I hope he could live in his new incarnation in Auroville and the spider’s nests would be his lovely theme too.
The social spider Stegodyphus sarasinorum lives in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It is gregarious in habit, spins labyrinthine tube which ends blindly at one end and at the other end expands into a broad sheet. The spider does not sting its prey to death, but feeds on it when alive, all members of the colony sharing the same victim. The newly emerged spiderlings feed on the parents.
The spider’s nests are usually common in Auroville on the different plants, sometimes on wires. But in the early morning 30 Dec. 2011 the cyclonic storm Thane attacked Auroville with winds at more than 135 km/h and heavy rainfall. Thousands of trees were uprooted and no electricity for two weeks. After Thane I didn’t see the spider’s nests for about two years. It was a great tragedy for the species which plays an important role in the Auroville’s ecosystem.
In 2004 I was for the first time in the Auroville Nature Camp near Berijam Lake. This lake has an artificial origin and artificial plantations of trees are around it: pines, eucalyptuses, acacias (wattles). But there are plenty of bushes around the lake; they are aboriginal, native, and indigenous. I felt among them like a bushman in the Kalahari Desert (Southern Africa). From one of the bushes I took a branch with yellow flowers and brought it in Auroville. The botanists of the city could not identify the bush; this plant doesn’t grow in Auroville. I was unhappy but after some time I met a botanist from Bangalore in Shakti. He saw the branch and said: “It is Hypericum mysorense or St. John's wort. It is attractive for the insects”.
Around Berijam Lake there are many social spiders’ nests, mostly on Hypericum bushes. The spider has a habit: from time to time the colony moves into a new nest. I collected the old nests and investigated them under a microscope in Shakti. The spiders drunk the insects “blood” (gemolympha) but the chitin of the victim’s cover remained in the nest’s walls. Every old nest is a cemetery of prey and I can identify the spider’s victims. Near the lake (2,130 m above sea level) the spiders catch mainly beetles but on the slope of the hill, 250 m higher than the lake, they catch tiny wasps.
The Nature Camp moved from Berijam Lake to another place near Kavunji village – about 1,800 m above sea level. After cyclone Thane I saw the social spider’s nests on Hypericum bushes like always. I asked Kavunji’s residents: “Did the cyclone attack this region?” – “No, it was a strong wind only” - The social spiders in Kodaikanal region are luckier than those in Auroville!