New discovery alert! A new order of insects called webspinners was just documented in the Smokies for the first time—just in time for spooky season! 🕸️
We are weaving a new story on the “web” of life in the Smokies with this excited new discovery!
DLiA Science and Research Director Will Kuhn paused at a tree along the Little River Trail. He was hiking with the Great Smokies Hiking & Adventure Group last weekend when something caught his eye. “I noticed these trails of white silk webbing on a big maple tree,” recalled Will. “The white lines filled gaps between breaks in the bark. It reminded me of Smoke and that got me really excited!” Will pointed the oddity out to his fellow hikers and took lots of photos for iNaturalist. Later, expert Faith England, a student at Oklahoma State University, confirmed that the ‘web galleries’ Will had seen were made by an elusive insect called a webspinner.
Webspinners (insect order Embioptera) make tunnels out of silk in rock crevices and bark, which they use as protective hide-aways as they feed on nearby plant material. They’re related to roaches, mantises and their kin and produce web from their enlarged ‘forearms’.
“For years, ATBI folks suspected that webspinners were here in the Smokies,” said Will, “but no one had seen them yet, until now!”
There are not many webspinner species in the Smokies region. One species (Diradius vandykei) has been documented in northern Georgia and coastal North Carolina and Virginia. An introduced species (Oligotoma nigra) native to India has been spotted in nearby Knoxville, but generally prefers to build its galleries on the ground, rather than the bark of living trees.
“Now that we know they’re here, we need to know more about them! What species is it? How widespread are they in the Smokies? As an entomologist, this is about as exciting as it gets!!!”
Check out the current Smokies species tally!
See more on iNaturalist!
Will’s observation in GSMNP
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320507994
Not from GSMNP
Diradius vandykei human finger for scale:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/33614776
Diradius vandykei on bark:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/96932000
