Jussi Bjorling Made Met Opera Debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in La Bohème

Summary: Jussi Bjorling made his Met Opera debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in La Bohème and reprised the role over six seasons at the opera house.

Jussi Björling in his Metropolitan Opera debut role as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème; photo by The New York Times Studio: Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet, via Facebook June 17, 2013

Jussi Björling made his Met Opera debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in La Bohème and reprised his debut role in six seasons over the next 15 years.

Swedish operatic tenor Jussi Björling (Feb. 5, 1911-Sept. 9, 1960) made his Metropolitan Opera debut on Thursday, Nov. 24, 1938, as Rodolfo in the opera company’s 330th performance of La Bohème by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924). Italian operatic soprano Mafalda Favero (Jan. 5, 1905-Sept. 3, 1981) as Mimì and Italian soprano Marisa Morel (born Dec. 13, 1914) as Musetta joined Jussi Björling in making their Met Opera debuts during the 1938-1939 season premiere of La Bohème.

La Bohème received nine performances in the 1938-1939 season. On Nov. 30, Björling made the second of his two appearances in the role of Rodolfo.

Björling reprised Rodolfo in 13 appearances scattered across six seasons over 14 years. His first reprisal occurred in the next season after his Met Opera debut. He sang Rodolfo for the first two performances of the 1939-1940 season’s eight performances.

Björling’s second reprisal took place six seasons later, in the 1945-1946 season. He sang Rodolfo in three of the season’s 11 performances.

His third, fourth and fifth reprisals occurred successively in the next three seasons. Björling reprised Rodolfo for two performances of the 1946-1947 season’s nine performances. He sang Rodolfo in three of the 1947-1948 season’s 13 performances and in two of the 1948-1949 season’s 16 performances.

Five seasons later, Björling made his sixth and last reprisal of Rodolfo. He appeared in the role in one of the 1953-1954 season’s 19 performances.

Björling’s sole appearance during the 1953-1954 season, marked his final appearance in the role at the Metropolitan Opera. His appearance on Feb. 1, 1954, numbered as his 15th performance as Rodolfo at the Metropolitan Opera.

After his Met Opera debut as La Bohème’s Rodolfo, Jussi Björling added nine roles to his Met Opera portfolio. His Met Opera portfolio of 10 operas comprised two operas by 19th century French composer Charles-François Gounod (June 17, 1818-Oct. 18, 1893); one opera by Italian opera composer Pietro Mascagni (Dec. 7, 1863-Aug. 2, 1945); three Puccini operas; and four operas by 19th-century Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901).

Eight days after his Metropolitan Opera debut, Björling claimed his second role debut in the 1938-1939 season. His role debut as Manrico took place Dec. 2, 1938, in the opera company’s 204th performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore.

His third and fourth role debuts occurred in the next season, 1939-1940. His role debut in the title role of Gounod’s Faust happened Dec. 28, 1939, in Met Opera’s 419th performance of the opera. He made his role debut as the Duke of Mantua on Jan. 1, 1940, in the opera company’s 233rd performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Björling’s fifth role debut, in the following season, 1940-1941, added a third Verdi opera to his Met Opera portfolio. His role debut as Riccardo occurred Dec. 2, 1940, in Met Opera’s 23rd performance of Un Ballo in Maschera.

Five seasons later, in 1945-1946, Björling’s sixth role debut added his second Puccini opera to his Met Opera repertoire. He made his role debut as Cavaradossi on Dec. 5, 1945, in the Metropolitan Opera’s 270th performance of Tosca.

Björling’s seventh and eighth role debuts at Met Opera occurred successively in the next two seasons, 1946-1947 and 1947-1948. He made his title role debut in his second Gounod opera on Jan. 15, 1947, in the opera company’s 188th performance of Roméo et Juliette. His role debut in the only Mascagni opera in his Met Opera portfolio occurred Dec. 31, 1947, as Turiddu in the opera’s 332nd performance at the Metropolitan Opera.

Two seasons later, in 1949-1950, Björling added his ninth role debut and his third Puccini opera to his Met Opera portfolio. His role debut as Des Grieux happened Nov. 23, 1949, in the opera company’s 69th performance of Manon Lescaut.

In the next season, 1950-1951, Björling garnered his 10th role debut and his fourth Verdi opera at the Metropolitan Opera. He made his role debut on Nov. 6, 1950, in the title role in the 15th performance of Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera.

Jussi Björling gave his last performance at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1959-1960 season. He reprised his eighth Met Opera role, as Turiddu, for three of the season’s 10 performances of Cavalleria Rusticana. He sang Turiddu in the season’s third and fourth performances, on Nov. 16 and Nov. 27, respectively. His last appearance at Met Opera took place in the sixth performance, on Dec. 22, 1959.

Jussi was born as Johan Jonatan Björling in Borlänge in the historical, south central region of Sweden known as Svealand. His paternal, Finnish grandmother, Matila Lönnqvist Björling, gave him the Finnish nickname of Jussi.

The takeaways for Jussi Björling’s Met Opera debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in La Bohème are that the Swedish operatic tenor’s 25 appearances as Rodolfo at Met Opera included reprisals of the role in six seasons over the next 15 years and that his last singing of Rodolfo at Met Opera took place Feb. 1, 1954, during the 1953-1954 season.

makeup application for first of three performances given by Jussi Björling in his reprisal of La Bohème’s Rodolfo for the Metropolitan Opera’s 1947-1948 season: Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet, via Facebook Jan. 3, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Jussi Björling in his Metropolitan Opera debut role as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème; photo by The New York Times Studio: Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet, via Facebook June 17, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770321069743/1022776411069134/

makeup application for first of three performances given by Jussi Björling in his reprisal of La Bohème’s Rodolfo for the Metropolitan Opera’s 1947-1948 season: Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet, via Facebook Jan. 3, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770314403077/1547460301934073/

For further information:

Jussi Björling.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 124040 La Bohème {330} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/24/1938.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=124040

Henrysson, Harald. “Jussi Björling -- Biography.” Jussi Björling Sällskapet The Jussi Björling Society.
Available @ http://www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.com/id/1267.html

“Jussi Björling 1911-1960.” Jussi Björlingmuseet The Jussi Björling Museum.
Available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine @ https://web.archive.org/web/20090107051134/http://www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.com/english/contents/biografi/main.htm

“Jussi Björling: Last Performance.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 183580 Cavalleria Rusticana {414} Pagliacci {453} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/22/1959.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=183580

Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet. “DAGENS JUSSI: I logen med operachefen Edward Johnson, vid Jussis operadebut i USA och på Metropolitan som Rodolphe i La Bohème den 24 november 1938.” Facebook. Nov. 24, 2016.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770314403077/1488548807825223/

Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet. “DAGENS JUSSI: Sminkning inför föreställning av La bohème på Metropolitan den 3 januari 1948.” Facebook. Jan. 3, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770314403077/1547460301934073/

Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet. “Jussi Björling och Margaret Harshaw i Verids ‘Il Trovatore’, akt 2, på Metropolitanoperan i New York år 1947. Jussi Björling and Margaret Harshaw in Verdi's ‘Il Trovatore’, act 2, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, 1947.” Facebook. June 14, 2013.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770321069743/1022777494402359/

Jussi Björling Museum/Museet @jussi.bjorlingmuseet. “Jussi, iförd lockig peruk, som poeten Rodolphe i Puccinis ‘La Bohème’. Porträtt för Metropolitanoperan. Jussi, wearing a curly wig, as the poet Rodolphe in Puccini's ‘La Bohème. Portrait for the Metropolitan Opera.” Facebook. June 17, 2013.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/jussi.bjorlingmuseet/photos/a.1022770321069743/1022776411069134/

Marriner, Derdriu. "La Bohème Is the Jan. 25, 2020, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast." Earth and Space News. Monday, Jan. 20, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/la-boheme-is-jan-25-2020-met-opera.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “La Bohème Is Feb. 24, 2018, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/02/la-boheme-is-feb-24-2018-met-opera.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “La Bohème Was Franco Zeffirelli’s Fifth Met Opera Production.” Earth and Space News. Monday, July 20, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/la-boheme-was-franco-zeffirellis-fifth.html

“New Production: Don Carlo.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 155000 New Production Don Carlo {15} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/6/1950.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=130120

“New Production: Faust.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 164000 New Production Faust {499} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/16/1953.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=164000

“New Production: Il Trovatore.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 130120 New Production Il Trovatore {207} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/12/1940.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=130120

“New Production: Manon Lescaut.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 152010 New Production Manon Lescaut {69} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/23/1949.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=152010

“New Production: Un Ballo in Maschera.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 130000 New Production Un Ballo in Maschera {23} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/2/1940.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=130000

“Revised Production: La Bohème.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 149170 Revised Production La Bohème {418} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/16/1948.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=149170

“Surprise guest artists at Prince Orlofsky’s party in Act II: Jussi Björling.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 171580 Die Fledermaus {66} Metropolitan Opera House: 04/14/1956.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=171580

Warrack, John; and Ewan West. “Morel, Marisa.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera: 345. Third edition. Oxford UK; New York NY: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=WbDbuLJPKBgC&pg=PA345

Chicken Turtles: Striped Forelegs and Rump, Neck Long as Upper-Shell

Summary: North American chicken turtle habitats get necks long as shells, striped forelegs and webfeet on big, thin-tailed females and small, thick-tailed males.

Florida chicken turtle (Deirochelys reticularia chrysea) basks on log in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Brevard County, east central Florida; Dec. 19, 2011; NASA ID KSC-2011-8338: Jim Grossmann/NASA, Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library/Kennedy Space Center (KSC)

North American chicken habitats accumulate in Mid-Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain distribution ranges from southeastern Virginia southward through Florida, westward through eastern Texas, northward inland through Oklahoma and Missouri and everywhere in-between.

Chicken turtles bear their species common name for bountiful flesh beloved to Southern States' cuisines and the subspecies common names eastern, Florida and western chicken turtles. The species scientific name Deirochelys reticularia ("net-patterned neck-turtle") considers the subspecies scientific names Deirochelys reticularia reticularia, Deirochelys reticularia chrysea ("gold-vesseled") and Deirochelys reticularia miaria ("defiled"). Descriptions in 1801 by Pierre André Latreille (Nov. 29, 1762-Feb. 6, 1833) and in 1956 by Albert Schwartz (Sep. 13, 1923-Oct. 18, 1992) drive scientific designations.

Western, Florida and eastern chicken turtle life cycles expect shallow ditches, lakes, ponds and swamps with abundant aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, basking sites and cypress stands.

February through May, August through November and September through March fit into emydid turtle life cycles as respective eastern, western and Florida chicken turtle breeding months.

People, who rarely get bitten except during the cruelest captures, group all three subspecies with the shyest of Emydidae bog, marsh and pond turtle family members. They have the emydid turtle habit of harboring toxins in their flesh from happening upon and harvesting invertebrate food sources harmed by pesticide exposure and ingestion. Their daytime itineraries include sun-warmed interludes on grasses, ground-covers, rocks, soils and stumps and, despite their elongated, flattened, land-unfriendly, untortoise-like, water-unfriendly webbed hindfeet, diurnal walking intervals.

Agroindustrialists, breeders, collectors, drillers, polluters and predatory alligators, fire ants, foxes, moles, opossums, otters, raccoons, skunks, snakes and snapping turtles jeopardize North American chicken turtle habitats.

Western, Florida and eastern chicken turtles keep their elongated, straightened foreclaws keen for elaborate courtship behaviors like those known by other, related emydid turtle family members.

Females lay 2 to 3 seasonal clutches of 5 to 15 elliptical, flexible-, 1.375-inch- (3.49-millimeter-) long, pale, thin-shelled eggs in flask-shaped, 4-inch- (10.16-centimeter-) deep nest cavities. Females and males respectively manifest physical and sexual maturity with 7-inch (17.78-centimeter) lengths as six- to eight-year-olds and with 4-inch (10.16-centimeter) lengths as two- to four-year-olds. Amphibian and insect larvae, aquatic invertebrates, carrion, crayfish, fish, fruits, tadpoles, water hyacinth, water lettuce and watercress nourish omnivorous (everything-eating) western, Florida and eastern chicken turtles.

North American chicken habitats offer season's coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 5 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20.56 to minus 1.11 degrees Celsius).

Bald cypress, black-gum, button-bush, loblolly bay, magnolia, maple, pond cypress, pond pine, red bay, sumac, sweet bay, sweet-gum and water lily promote North American chicken turtles.

Four to 10 inches (10.16 to 25.4 centimeters) queue up total lengths on semi-wrinkled carapaces with light-striped rumps, striped necks long as upper-shells and wide-striped forelegs. Eastern chicken turtle upper-shells reveal brown-green, narrow, netlike patterns and narrow, yellow rims even though southeastward in Florida gold-orange-lined carapace patterns and orange-yellow lower-shells (plastrons) rule. Western chicken turtle lower- and upper-shells respectively show dark seams and broad, faint, netlike patterns whereas all subspecies sustain small-sized, thick-tailed males and large-sized, thin-tailed females.

North American chicken turtle habitats tender big-sized, flat-plastroned, thin-tailed females and concave-shelled, small-sized, thick-tailed males with small-headed, super-long necks, striped forelegs and rumps and webbed hindfeet.

eastern chicken turtle (Deirochelys reticularia reticularia); First Landing State Park, Cape Henry, northwestern Virginia Beach, southeastern Virginia; Tuesday, July 3, 2012: Virginia State Parks (vastateparksstaff), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Florida chicken turtle (Deirochelys reticularia chrysea) basks on log in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Brevard County, east central Florida; Dec. 19, 2011; NASA ID KSC-2011-8338: Jim Grossmann/NASA, Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library/Kennedy Space Center (KSC) @ https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-2011-8338

eastern chicken turtle (Deirochelys reticularia reticularia); First Landing State Park, Cape Henry, northwestern Virginia Beach, southeastern Virginia; Tuesday, July 3, 2012: Virginia State Parks (vastateparksstaff), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/vastateparksstaff/7845957020/

For further information:

Aardema, J.; S. Beam; J. Boner; J. Bussone; C. Ewart; I. Kaplan; K. Kiefer; S. Lindsay; E. Merrill; W. Moretz; J. Roberts; E. Rockwell; M. Reott; J. Willson; A. Pickens; W. Guthrie; A. Young; Y. Kornilev; W. Anderson; G. Connette; E. Eskew; E. Teague; M. Thomas; and A. Tutterow. "Chicken Turtle Deirochelys reticularia." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/chicken-turtle/

Coy, Thomas. "Chicken Turtles Deirochelys reticularia." Austins Turtle Page > Turtle Care > Care Sheets > U.S. Turtles > Chicken Turtles > Select.
Available @ http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-chicken_turtle.htm

Holbrook, John Edwards. 1838. "Emys Reticulata -- Bosc." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. II: 41-45. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3688338

NASA Kennedy / KSC ‏@NASAKennedy. 27 December 2011. "Did you know that @NASAKennedy is next to a wildlife refuge? Here's a Florida chicken turtle we spotted recently. twitpic.com/7zcpjn." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NASAKennedy/status/151696874796089344

"New World pond turtles (Emydidae)." Pages 105-107. In: Schwartz, Albert. 1956. "Geographic Variation in the Chicken Turtle Deirochelys reticularia Latreille: Deirochelys reticularia chrysea subsp. nov." Fieldiana -- Zoology, vol. 34, no. 41 (Nov. 13, 1956): 476-486.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2774126

Schwartz, Albert. 1956. "Geographic Variation in the Chicken Turtle Deirochelys reticularia Latreille: Deirochelys reticularia miaria subsp. nov." Fieldiana -- Zoology, vol. 34, no. 41 (Nov. 13, 1956): 486-497.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2774136

Sonnini, C.S. (Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert); P.A. (Pierre André) Latreille. 1801."La Tortue réticulaire, Testudo reticularia." Histoire Naturelle des Reptiles, Avec Figures Dessinées d'après Nature. Première Partie: Quadrupèdes et Bipèdes Ovipares. Tome premier: 124-127. Paris, France: Imprimerie de Crapelet, An X (September 1801-September 1802).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3688644

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/

Uetz, Peter. "Deirochelys reticularia (Latreille, 1801)." Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Deirochelys&species=reticularia&search_param=%28%28search%3D%27deirochelys+reticularia%27%29%29

Yates, Brock. 1 April 2019. "The Chicken Turtle (American Snake Necks)." All Turtles > Species Covered > Turtles > Turtle Species > Box Turtles > 11. Chicken Turtle. Last updated 15 August 2022.
Available @ https://www.allturtles.com/chicken-turtle/

Common Sanddragon Dragonfly Habitats: Rearward Triangle-Marked Abdomen

Summary: North American common sanddragon dragonfly habitats get dot-tipped wings, rearward triangle-marked abdomens, striped thoraxes and w-marked foreheads.

Retired science teacher Walter Sanford shares that the distinctive field marker for male common sanddragon dragonflies (Progomphus obscurus) is that their hindwings are indented near their bodies; male common sanddragon alongside Dogue Creek, Wickford Park, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; June 8, 2016: Walter Sanford @Geodialist, via Twitter March 29, 2017

North American common sanddragon dragonfly habitats assemble sand garden-loving cultivators and niche-loving naturalists in distribution ranges from New Hampshire through Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ontario, Vermont and everywhere in-between.

Common sanddragons bear their common name for abundant populations and for sandy larval habitats and the scientific name Progomphus obscurus (first crossbow bolt [with] subdued [coloration]). Common names call upon scientific committee consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose 22nd Bulletin of American Odonatology covers damselflies and dragonflies in Iowa. Scienific designations defer to descriptions in 1842 by Jules Pierre Rambur (July 21, 1801-Aug. 10, 1870), Montpellier and Tours medical school-trained graduate September 1827 in Paris.

Common sanddragon life cycles expect rocky, shallow, wooded rivers with sand-sprinkled waters and sandy-bottomed, shallow, woodland lakes, ponds, rivers and streams with low-lying, weedy, woody vegetation.

April through September function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though June and July furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout coastal and inland common sanddragon niches.

Common sanddragons go from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on food-searching and perch-seeking flights over open, rocky, sandy, weedy, woody banks and mate-seizing patrols over riffles. They hang obliquely from ground, through understory, to treetop layers of waterside, weedy, woody vegetation, head out as fluttering, gliding, hovering hawkers and hide under bushes. Inclining abdomens upward, called obelisking, to impede sunlight exposure and temperature increase identifies common sanddragons as much as weak flights over riffles, rocks, sand and vegetation.

Ants, assassin flies, biting midges, ducks, falcons, fish, flycatchers, frogs, grebes, lizards, spiders, turtles and water beetles and mites jeopardize North American common sanddragon dragonfly habitats.

Immature adult-like, nonflying common sanddragon larvae, naiads or nymphs keep to diets of chironomid larvae and mayfly naiads and to diminutive, dull-colored sizes throughout multiple molts.

Incomplete metamorphosis links round eggs laid during 1-yard- (0.91-meter-) long oviposits by male-guarded females, multi-molting immature stages living on sand banks and bottoms and molted tenerals. Molted, shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals mature physically and sexually away from sandy metamorphosis sites to manage weedy, woody perches and roosts, mate for 15 minutes and manipulate eggs into ovipositing sites. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish sanddragon members of the Gomphidae clubtail dragonfly family.

North American prince baskettail dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, north- to southward, from minus 45 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 3.88 degrees Celsius).

Beech, bellflower, birch, bladderwort, cattail, daisy, grass, greenbrier, heath, laurel, madder, maple, nettle, olive, pepperbush, pine, pondweed, rush, sedge, water-lily and willow families promote common sanddragons.

Blue-gray or brown eyes and egg-thickened, unclubbed black-brown abdomens with egg-filled, egg-releasing ovipositors at darkened tips of terminal segments with claspers qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal blue-gray to olive-green-yellow eyes, brown-, double-, cross-striped yellow faces, brown-, double-striped yellow thoraxes, black-brown abdomens with burning candle-like, rear-pointing triangles and dark short legs. Adults show off 2.01- to 2.16-inch (51- to 55-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.54- to 1.69-inch (39- to 43-millimeter) abdomens and 1.22- to 1.38-inch (31- to 35-millimeter) hindwings.

Cream-colored claspers, dark-based, dot-tipped wings, brown-striped thoraxes, rear-pointing burning candle-patterned abdomens, w-marked foreheads tell common sanddragons from other odonates in North American prince baskettail dragonfly habitats.

female common sanddragon; Huntley Meadows Park, Hybla Valley southeastern Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; June 17, 2015: Walter Sanford @Geodialist, via Twitter June 26, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Retired science teacher Walter Sanford shares that the distinctive field marker for male common sanddragon dragonflies (Progomphus obscurus) is that their hindwings are indented near their bodies; male common sanddragon alongside Dogue Creek, Wickford Park, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; June 8, 2016: Walter Sanford @Geodialist via Twitter March 29, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/Geodialist/status/847011751262638080

female common sanddragon; Huntley Meadows Park, Hybla Valley southeastern Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; June 17, 2015: Walter Sanford @Geodialist, via Twitter June 26, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Geodialist/status/614372710039195648

For further information:

Abbott, John C. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Princeton NJ; Oxford UK: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Beaton, Giff. Dragonflies & Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast. Athens GA; London UK: University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Berger, Cynthia. Dragonflies. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books: Wild Guide, 2004.

Bright, Ethan. "Progomphus obscurus (Rambur, 1842: 170 as Diastatomma) -- Common Sanddragon." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Gomphidae (Clubtails) > Progomphus Selys, 1854 (Sanddragons) .
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Paulson, Dennis. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2011.

"Progomphus obscurus." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Gomphidae > Progomphus.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=1775

Rambur, P. (Jules Pierre). 1842. "5. Diastatomma obscurum, mihi." Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Névroptères: 170. Paris, France: Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1842.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015058433833?urlappend=%3Bseq=202
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/histoirenaturel53buffgoog#page/n215/mode/1up

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/

Walter Sanford ‏@Geodialist. "Common Sanddragon dragonfly (male)." Twitter. March 29, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Geodialist/status/847011751262638080

Walter Sanford @Geodialist. "Common Sanddragon dragonfly terminal appendages." Twitter. June 26, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Geodialist/status/614372710039195648

Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 Adds the Most Area to Ellora Buddhist Caves

Summary: Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 assumes the most area, the second most ancient aspects and two building assignments at Buddhist Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India.

looking outward in Ellora Buddhist Cave 5; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:24: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 attests to the most area, the second most ancient cavern adorational architecture and art and two buildings assignments among Buddhist Ellora Caves in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks built Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 as the biggest vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") cavern temple monastery among Buddhist Ellora Caves. They commenced Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 after they completed Ellora Buddhist Cave 6, cavern temple monastery that converted less cliff basalt into an excavated, carved configuration. Cavern temple monastery designs and details demanded dividing developing Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 between two dates, with the second dateline devoted to the delayed right wing.

Expansive, exquisite Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 perhaps ensured that Buddhist Ellora Caves emerged, established and endured even as Buddhist Ajanta Caves, on equivalent trade routes, expired.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 perhaps functioned as a multi-storied cavern temple monastery with eating, living, meeting and sleeping furnishings for more fortunate artisans, merchants and monks.

Kshatriya (from Sanskrit क्षत्रिय, "protector of gentle people") warrior and Vaishya (from Sanskrit वैश्य, "soil-settler") merchant castes generated enlightened Prince Siddhartha Gautama's (624?-544 B.C.E.?) first followers. Trade routes headed Siddhartha Gautama (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "darkness-dispelling light"), as Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened"), southward from his Kshatriyan, royal family. Collateral and direct descendants of Gautama converts itinerated father southward, into ancient Maharashtra, where tolerant dynasts and emperors never impeded cavern temple installations for meditation-impelled itinerants.

Perhaps ascetic itinerants journeyed less to Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 than to Ajanta Caves' austerer cavern temple monasteries from the third through the first centuries B.C.E.

Second-phase excavations from the fifth through the sixth, seventh or eighth centuries at Ajanta Caves kindled cavern temple monastery cells predictive of Ellora Buddhist Cave 5.

Douglas Barrett, in Painting of India, for the Skira publishing firm, 1963, looks at Deccan (from Sanskrit dakshina, दक्षिणा, "south") links in Ajanta and Ellora Caves. Ellora Buddhist Cave 5, unlike the North Deccan-manipulated Ajanta Caves 60 miles (96.59 kilometers) away, manifests less ascetic, seventh-century South Deccan cavern adorational architecture and art. Perhaps more numerous itinerants needing more niceties than anticipated nudged a right wing for Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 between excavating Ellora Buddhist Caves 3 and 4.

Full occupancy perhaps obstructed optimal organization of communal and individual observances of walking meditations by Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 overnighters even without overnighters from other caverns.

Perhaps full presences at and waiting lists for Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 pushed itinerant artisans, merchants and monks toward more, albeit petiter, cavern temple monastery production.

Slow-queuing walkling meditations at Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 perhaps qualified as incentives for the sole, subsequent Ellora Buddhist cavern prayer hall at Ellora Buddhist Cave 20. Itinerant artisans, merchants and monks and their sponsors perhaps realized less realistic room dimensions and purposes at Buddhist Ajanta Caves than at Ellora Buddhist Cave 5. They, and perhaps collateral and direct descendants, stopped showing up at Ajanta Caves even as they meditated and slept at Ellora Buddhist Cave 5.

Ellora Buddhist Cave 5 teamed with Ellora Buddhist Caves 10 and 1 through 4, 6 through 9, 11 and 12 for on-site meditation and temple sleepovers.

closeup of pillar in Ellora Buddhist Cave 5; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:25: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

looking outward in Ellora Buddhist Cave 5; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:24: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:162_Cave_5,_Looking_Out_(33311923014).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/33311923014/

closeup of pillar in Ellora Buddhist Cave 5; Saturday, March 4, 2017, 23:25: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:179_Cave_5,_Pillar_Patterning_(33769660660).jpg; Anandajoti Bhikkhu (Anandajoti), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/33769660660/

For further information:

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Ajay Kulkarni @kulkey2015. 8 May 2019. "Ellora Caves, 6-8th cent, India a world heritage Always a different experience to witness the symphony of art, architecture, nature brought together by Summer high contrast light. Built during early kalachuries, rashtrakutas and Buddhist period. My recent visit to cave 19." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/kulkey2015/status/1125979081911128064

Anh-Huong, Nguyen; and Thich Nhat Hanh. 2019. Walking Meditation. Boulder CO: Sounds True.

Barrett, Douglas. "Wall Painting (Second to Sixteenth Century)." Pages 17-48. In: Douglas Barrett and Basil Gray. Paintings of India. Treasures of Asia. Distributed in the United States by The World Publishing Company, Cleveland OH. Geneva, Switzerland: Editions d'Art Albert Skira, 1963.

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Cartwright, Mark. 8 March 2016. "Ellora Caves." Ancient History Encyclopedia > Article.
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Available @ https://www.sahapedia.org/riddle-called-ellora

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Available @ http://www.evaleestudio.com/2014/02/12/ellora-caves-buddhist-hindu-and-jain-coexistence/

Malandra, Geri H. 1993. Unfolding a Mandala: The Buddhist Cave Temples at Ellora. Albany NY: State University of New York Press.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=MU44LPu3mbUC

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 August 2020. "Ellora Buddhist Cave 6 Augurs Auspiciousness With its Makara Torana." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/ellora-buddhist-cave-6-augurs.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 August 2020. "Ellora Buddhist Caves Abound With Ancient Aspects of Tantric Buddhism." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/ellora-buddhist-caves-abound-with.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 August 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 16 Appears as Mount Kailasa But Appeals to Saraswati." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/ellora-hindu-cave-16-appears-as-mount.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 August 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 15 a Lion, a Name and Demon King Hiranyakasipu." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/ellora-hindu-cave-15-admits-lion-name.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 July 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 14 Adds up to a King, a Name and Demonic Adventures." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/ellora-hindu-cave-14-adds-up-to-king.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 July 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 13 Perhaps Acted as Abode of Ganesha and Wayfarers." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/ellora-hindu-cave-13-perhaps-acted-as.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 July 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 25 Artisans Adorned Its Ceiling With Sun God Surya." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/ellora-hindu-cave-25-artisans-adorned.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 July 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 24 Aids Artists, Scientists Analyzing Water Features." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/ellora-hindu-cave-24-aids-artists.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 July 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 23 Accepts Shiva as Fertility God and as Trimurti." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/ellora-hindu-cave-23-accepts-shiva-as.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 June 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 22 Allows a Fertility Bull and a Fertility God." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/ellora-hindu-cave-22-allows-fertility.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 June 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 18 Appeals to Hearth and Sacrificial Fire God Agni." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/ellora-hindu-cave-18-appeals-to-hearth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 June 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 17 Appreciates Gandharva Celestial Spirits and Shiva." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/ellora-hindu-cave-17-appreciates.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 June 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 26 Perhaps Asks for Auspicious Aid to Traders." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Availabled @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/ellora-hindu-cave-26-perhaps-asks-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 May 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 20 Adds the Last Adventure of Buffalo Demon Mahisha." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/ellora-hindu-cave-20-adds-last.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 May 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 21 Acclaims Shiva and Alludes to Jumna and Krishna." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/ellora-hindu-cave-21-acclaims-shiva-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 May 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 29 Assumes That Parvati and Shiva Adore One Another." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/ellora-hindu-cave-29-assumes-that.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 May 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 19 Appears Third Most Ancient Among Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/ellora-hindu-cave-19-appears-third-most.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 May 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 27 Appears Second Most Ancient Among Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/ellora-hindu-cave-27-appears-second.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 April 2020. "Ellora Hindu Cave 28 Accesses Waterfall Rainbows Over Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/ellora-hindu-cave-28-accesses-waterfall.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 April 2020. "Ellora Caves Are Arranged as Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Cave Temples." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/ellora-caves-are-arranged-as-buddhist.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 April 2020. "Are Indian Ring-Necked Rose-Ringed Parakeets Still at Ellora Caves?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/are-indian-ring-necked-rose-ringed.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 April 2020. "Indian Three-Striped Palm Squirrels Augur the Hindu Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/indian-three-striped-palm-squirrels.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Accept Walking Meditations Advocated by Thich Nhat Hanh." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-accept-walking-meditations.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Ally With Ajanta Caves and Thich Nhat Hanh in Indra's Net." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-ally-with-ajanta-caves-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 March 2020. "Ellora Caves Are Painted, Sculpted Temples Like and Unlike Ajanta Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ellora-caves-are-painted-sculpted.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 March 2020. "Ailing Ellora Caves Are Among Ameliorable World Heritage Centre Sites." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/ailing-ellora-caves-are-among.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 February 2020. "Schneider's Leaf-Nosed Bats Are Artful Annihilators at Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/schneiders-leaf-nosed-bats-are-artful.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 February 2020. "Greater Indian False Vampire Bats Are Artful Assassins at Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/greater-indian-false-vampire-bats-are.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 February 2020. "Are Grey Junglefowl Avoiding Artful Areas Around Ellora Caves? Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/are-grey-junglefowl-avoiding-artful.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 February 2020. "Blue Indian Peafowl No Longer Prettify the Artistic Ellora Caves." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/02/blue-indian-peafowl-no-longer-prettify.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 January 2020. "Ellora Caves Sanctuary Gardens Artfully Adjoin Ellora Caves Artistry." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ellora-caves-sanctuary-gardens-artfully.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 January 2020. "Ellora Caves Teak Forest Trees Anchor Ellora Caves Rain Gardens." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/ellora-caves-teak-forest-trees-anchor.html

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Owen, Lisa N. 2012. Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora. Leiden, The Netherlands; and Boston MA: Brill.
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First Space Spiders Arabella and Anita Spun Very Fine Webs for Skylab

Summary: First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which operated July to September 1973 at the Skylab space station.

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS

First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which was conducted from Saturday, July 28, to Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1973, as NASA’s second manned mission to Skylab, the first United States space station.

The two common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) were transported to the Skylab space station as participants in experiment ED52, Web Formation in Zero Gravity. They were housed in separate transportation vials for the mission. They were assigned separate shifts in the experiment’s screened observation cage for web formation.

Arabella reported reluctantly for web-spinning duty first on Sunday, Aug. 5. The mission’s scientist-pilot, Owen Garriot (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019), had to resort to shaking Arabella’s vial in order to transfer her into the web-formation cage. The three webs that she completed between Monday, Aug. 6, and Wednesday, Aug. 22, reflected her trajectory from disorientation to orientation in weightlessness.

Arabella’s session in the web formation cage ended Sunday, Aug. 28. She mirrored her reluctant entry of Aug. 6 into the cage with a reluctant exit.

After Arabella’s return to her transportation vial, Anita’s vial was placed in position on the web formation cage. A videotape and 16 mm film recorded Anita’s public encounter with weightlessness. Skylab, Classroom in Space, edited by Lee B. Summerlin and published by NASA in 1977, noted: “She, too, had to be forcibly ejected from her vial and, in fact, had to be picked off Garriott’s arm before she could be induced to ‘swim’ into place on the side of her cage” (page 47).

As with Arabella, Anita adjusted to weightlessness. Her three successive webs attested to her confident transformation of the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness into a familiar, workable environment.

Unfortunately, Anita’s space journey ended Sunday, Sept. 16, when Garriott “. . . found her dead in the cage. The dead spider was transferred to her launch vial for return to Earth.”

Arabella also did not survive the mission. After splashdown Tuesday, Sept. 25, Arabella was found dead in her transportation vial.

Prior to the start of the Skylab 3 mission, Arabella and Anita had spun pre-flight webs to serve as controls for their in-flight webs. Marshall Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) Skylab Student Project Report, published by NASA in 1974, observed that after the mission’s completion: “Examination of the returned web samples indicated that the thread spun in flight was significantly finer than that spun pre-flight giving positive evidence that the spider utilized a weight sensing organism to size her thread” (page 43).

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report noted the availability of “. . . 43 frames of 35mm film and several hundred feet of 16mm film (TV converted to film and conventional movie film) . . .” for analysis by the experiment’s student investigator, Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts, and her MSFC science adviser, Raymond L. Gause (page 46). Pre-flight data included five web photographs, of which four were spun by Arabella and one was built by Anita, according to German pharmacologist Peter N. Witt (born 1918) and four co-authors in their Skylab 3 web experiment analysis, published in the Journal of Arachnology’s spring 1976 issue.

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report described the steps taken by female common cross spiders to spin their daily, pre-dawn webs. The web starts with a rudimentary structure, a bridge and frame, to which radial threads are added. A temporary spiral emanating from the web’s hub, or central region, gives the gauge for the distance around the hub, which, in turn, informs “. . . the amount of silk required to complete the web and establishes the mesh size” (page 38). The web’s “sticky or catching portion” requires a construction of a signal thread in a “free section . . . from the spider’s retreat to the limb of the web” as a prey presence alert (page 38). The web’s elements generally comprise “30 to 40 radials and 25 to 35 spiral turns.” Dr. Witt et al. noted the spiders’ inclusion of prey traps even “under the very strange conditions of Skylab” (page 117).

The takeaways for first space spiders Arabella’s and Anita’s very fine web-spinning for the Skylab 3 mission are that the two common cross spiders considered weightlessness by resizing their threads and that their space webs’ inclusion of a sticky trap also conformed with their Earth webs’ prey-catching purpose.

“Anita proved that she, too, could produce almost Earth-like webs once she had adapted to weightlessness.”; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 49: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

“Anita proved that she, too, could produce almost Earth-like webs once she had adapted to weightlessness.”; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 49: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Hitt, David; Owen Garriott; and Joe Kerwin. Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story. Featuring the In-Flight Diary of Alan Bean. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Homesteading_Space.html?id=sR5Cm_zeIekC

Kelly, Michelle. “Alan L. Bean Oral History Interviews.” NASA Johnson Space Center History Portal > NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. June 23, 1998.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/BeanAL/beanal.htm

Marriner, Derdriu. “Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/arabella-and-anita-spun-first-space.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “First Web in Space Was Spun in 1973 by Common Cross Spider Arabella.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/first-web-in-space-was-spun-in-1973-by.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 22, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/fourth-moonwalker-alan-bean-commanded.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma Did Second EVA Aug. 24, 1973, at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/owen-garriott-and-jack-lousma-did.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-astronaut-wives-pranked.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Captured Dramatic Solar Prominences in August 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylab-3-captured-dramatic-solar.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Mission Patch Emphasized Earth, Sun and Medical Themes.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylabbers Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma First Spacewalked Aug. 6, 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylabbers-owen-garriott-and-jack.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Two Mummichog Minnows Became First Fish in Space in 1973 Via Skylab 3.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 29, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-mummichog-minnows-became-first-fish.html

NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. “C. Zoology. 1. ED52 -- Web Formation.” MSFC Skylab Student Project Report: 38-46. NASA Technical Memorandum TM X-64866. NASA Skylab Program Office. August 1974.
Available @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “Web Formation -- Skylab Student Experiment ED-52.” Jan. 1, 1973.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MSFC-9513727

Summerlin Lee B., ed. Skylab, Classroom in Space: 41-48. Prepared by George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA SP-401. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1977.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reports Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19770022245.pdf

Witt, Peter N.; Mabel B. Scarboro; Rubenia Daniels; David B. Peakall; and Raymond L. Gause. “Spider Web-Building in Outer Space: Evaluation of Records From the Skylab Spider Experiment.” Journal of Arachnology, vol. 4, issue 2 (Spring 1976): 115-124.
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Zahl, Paul A. “What’s So Special About Spiders?” National Geographic, vol. 140, no. 2 (August 1971): 190-219.