They decided that wolf spiders were more expressive and cuddly looking. Well, actually we were watching the DVD on a trip to an amusement park, aboard a charter bus. But I appreciate the info. Oh, yeah. Yes, it was a real answer. The real spiders who have a face and can talk are much smaller. I assumed that was because she was feminine. Cavaticus is typically the masculine well, second declension , singular ending.
And the same with Aranea, the daughter. They thought this was expressive AND cuddly looking? I interviewed the animators for my next book which is a narrative natural science for adults on spiders.
I am a recovered arachnophobe who overdid the cure and am now obsessed by them. I have quite a long quote from John Dietz, who headed the animation team, on how they went about doing Charlotte. That is one of the garden orb weavers, with different species found all over the world.
Then he left the box on top of his bureau in his New York bedroom. Soon enough, the egg sack hatched and baby spiders emerged from the box.
We all lived together happily for a couple of weeks, and then somebody whose duty it was to dust my dresser balked, and I broke up the show. At the present time, three of Charlotte's granddaughters are trapping at the foot of the stairs in my barn cellar, where the morning light, coming through the east window, illuminates their embroidery and makes it seem even more wonderful than it is. When White started writing the story, he called the spider Charlotte Epeira because he misidentified the spider in his barn as a gray cross spider, Epeira sclopetaria.
Then he contacted an expert at the American Museum of Natural History and was able to correctly identify the spider as Araneus cavaticus —the common barn spider. Thus, his spider was renamed Charlotte A.
At first, White struggled with how to start the story , unsure whether to begin with Wilbur or Charlotte. Then at the last minute, he added Fern , the little girl who pleads with her father not to kill the runt piglet named Wilbur. Although she fades from the story as she matures, Fern adds layers of humanity that connects directly to the young reader.
She was shocked and asked if the manuscript was a carbon copy. And Fern is the lone human bystander who understands the animals laying their plans. In the past I've talked about spider silk and about orb weavers. Now a barn spider just like Charlotte appeared at our house two weeks ago. That night, she spun a web across our door, closing us in and keeping all evil creatures out. The web was gone at dawn. We could, once more, come and go as we pleased. Every night she's done that same ritual.
We call her Ms. Arachne, not Charlotte. Arachne has taken residence in a crevice where a joist holds our roof. Each evening she waits for us to turn off the lights and TV. Then she spins a small hammock next to her hole. From there, she drops to the floor carrying one silk strand -- then climbs back up and repeats, setting the frame of her web.
Next, she runs a spiral path, laying down her complex net. It takes about an hour to finish. It's clear we're watching a master weaver. Such craftsmanship! But why is the web gone each morning?
Two reasons: One is conservation; spider silk is fine material, not to be wasted. I rose in the small hours one morning to find her in the last stages of eating her web.
That's so she can reuse the silk the next night.
0コメント