Spiders Do It

"Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it...." So wrote Cole Porter in "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." But in his list of animals' amatory pursuits, which ranged from "Argentines without means"  to "goldfish in the privacy of bowls," he did not include spiders.

And this is a pity, for now it is their time for romance. Yes, dear reader, it is mating season for spiders. In British Columbia, one entomologist estimates, there are eighteen species of spider. Or maybe it's eighteen hundred. A lot, anyway, from teeny-weeny to the Aquarium's South American imports, the size of dinner plates.

So if you spy a spider, or, more probably, a pair of spiders, please allow them their special moment.

And arachnophobiacs--you might want to leave town for the next couple of weeks.