Sunday, June 17, 2018

Crab Spiders

I'm always on the look out for crab spiders. I often spot them on daylilies, although they are on other flowers as well. I hadn't had much success until I spotted this one at Innovation Place on my way home from work.

Crab spider

Crab spider

There are some daylilies in the back alley just near our house where I often find crab spiders. I spotted one the other day that was white so I assume it had just arrived, since they change color to match what they're on. I went back on the weekend with my macro lens. I first spotted this medium sized one on the underside of a flower.

Crab spider

It moved around to the inside of the flower and I got a better shot.

Crab spider

Then I found this larger one (.5cm / .25in body) busy eating a fly. (They inject digestive fluids and then suck out the result.) This one had slightly different markings, but I think they are the same kind (Goldenrod crab spiders)

Crab spider

You can see the eight eyes in this one. Sometimes it looks like they only have six, but there are two that point to the sides.

Crab spider

If you look closely in some of these shots you can see the fly's head is detached. (It's behind in this photo.) I'm not sure if the spider did that deliberately?

Crab spider

I was trying to keep a small aperture (f11 - 16) for depth of focus, but that meant quite slow shutter speeds, even with high ISO. So in the afternoon I went back with my monopod. A tripod would have been even better but it's awkward getting the right angle and following them as they move around. By this point it had finished its meal (I assume it's the same spider since it was in the same flower). I'm guessing they hold their legs like that ready to grab prey. Strangely, the "hairs" on the legs point the wrong direction for holding onto something. The legs end in a single curved "claw".

Crab spider

Crab spider

I ended up taking almost 400 photos. That probably seems excessive but out of a batch of 10 or 20 from the same angle, there might only be one or two decently sharp so you need to take lots. (The benefits of digital!)

See all 20 photos



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