Hiya kids - your old pal P.Ray here, back from my summer vacation! I went to Predator Park and had a great time! Although I did ride the Wild Mantis a little too soon after I ate all those fly dogs...

Anyway, I thought it would be great to be back home, but I've been here all day and haven't seen a THING to eat.

Hey look, there's Vito the mud dauber wasp!

"Hey Vito - where's all the bugs? I'm starving!" I said.

Vito answered, "I'll bet you're hungry - you've got competition now! Go over to the pond; you'll see! Just be careful you don't get 'stuck!' Ha ha ha!"

Now what do you suppose he meant by that, kids? Guess I'll just glide on over to the water, and...

Whoa! What is THAT?!

It's a spider web! So THAT'S what Vito meant! I can't let somebody else eat my bugs! So I yelled, "Hey Spidey! C'mon down and fight like...like...well, like an arachnid, I guess!"

There's the spider that's spoiling my suppers! It's pretty! All black and yellow...luckily, it's pretty small. Wait a minute; the web's starting to shake! And the spider is getting bigger and bigger! Yow! I better make myself scarce!

Just then O'Donata flew in and asked, "Hey P.Ray - why the long face?"

"Eh, that's what manti faces look like, O'Donata!" I replied.

"I KNOW that, you silly!" she said. "Why are you so sad?"

"I'm sad because I'm hungry - the giant spider in the web by the pond is eating all my bugs!"

She replied, "There's no web by the pond; I was JUST there!"

Could she be right, kids? Could the big bad spider be gone??? Let's go see!

Hey! O'Donata was right - the web is gone! I wonder where it went? I wonder where the spider went?

"I'm right here, mantis mouth!" said the spider.

"Yow! Hey - you didn't try to eat me!" I said, surprised.

"Yeah - you're lucky my chelicerae are full right now!" the spider answered.

"That's fancy talk for your mouth, right? Hey - it looks like its full of - your web!?"

The spider explained, "Yeah - I eat my old web when it gets dirty and isn't sticky anymore and I spin a new one pretty much every day. You manti [ITAL 'manti'] are lucky - all you have to do is grab whatever comes by. I have to do a lot of weaving."

"I have to do a lot of weaving too - when a hungry bird sees me! Hey, you look small again!" I said.

"Oh - that's just my special trick! We garden orb spiders shake our web when we're threatened - it makes us look like we're bigger than we are," he said.

Well, it sure worked on me, didn't it! What's that, kids?

"Hey, Spidey - the kids out there want to know where you came from," I told the spider.

"I dropped into the Paper Garden this spring. After our eggs hatch, all of us web-spinner types make a little gliding parachute. Mine carried me on a breeze for a long time - then I saw the big piles of straw they use to mulch the garden here. We spiders really like straw. You know, in China, farmers build little piles of straw in their fields so that lots of us "gliding" spiders will land there and eat bad bugs for them!" he answered.

Well, this is all very interesting, kids - but I'm getting hungrier and hungrier! I'm going to have to tell this prattling predator that this garden just isn't big enough for two bug eaters like us...Whoa! What's THAT?!

The spider yelled, "Grasshoppers! Dinner is SERVED! Quick, P.Ray, you start catching some! I have to spin my web back up, fast!"

Well, kids, I'm eating more grasshoppers than I ever dreamed of! I don't think I can chomp on one more! But I won't have to - look! The web is back up again! And grasshoppers are getting stuck on it like mad!

"Good thing they showed up, P.Ray; pickings were getting pretty slim around here. Now there's plenty for us both to eat! I'll take care of the ones that hit my web and you can have all the rest," the spider said.

"Sounds like a plan to me, Spidey. Hey - can you teach me to spin a web? I'd like to stop having to chase my prey around all the time!"

The spider replied, "P.Ray - look at your fat belly all filled with grasshoppers! You NEED the exercise!"

THE END


GLOSSARY WORDS:

Arachnid: A group of insects that includes spiders, scorpions, and mites. Arachnids have four pairs of legs, no antennae, and they breathe air.

Chelicerae: Fang-like pinchers near the mouth of a spider. The spider usually uses them to grab and stab things.

Mulch: Material such as straw or leaves that is spread on the ground to protects soil and plant roots, and to smother weeds.


Story by Mike "Peter Parker" McGrath
Illustrations by Yasushi Fujiomoto and Tokiko Jinta
Animation by Glenn Hughes.