THE SPIDERWEB
From PMPT pb, pg 57: "Also, one officer had noticed three strands of a spiderweb at that spot. It extended from the edge of the grate covering the well outside the broken window to the window itself."
The controversy arose about whether or not the spiderweb, even though not broken, had been repaired by the spider early that morning.
The Boulder police had the spider identified as belonging to the Agelendidae family of house spiders which hibernate during the winter and are active only during the months of March to October each year. The spider spins a tangled web with a tubular retreat tunnel.
The temperature in Boulder during the early morning of the crime (the 26th) dipped to 6 degrees F but rose quickly to 51 degrees later in the day.
The identification was made by Dr. Brent Opell at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Dr. Opell, also known as The Spider Man, said the Agelendidae never messes with his web after October and from the enlarged pictures of the web sent to him he estimated the web to be at least two months old.
BlueCrab