We try to get out for walks fairly regularly, and what is the point of a walk if not to find spiders? Today we trekked out to the Horticulture Display Garden, but before we even left the yard we had to photograph this bulbous butt.
Then off to the gardens!
We had to check on that humongous Araneus trifolium we’d spotted yesterday — she was still there, hiding under a leaf that was stitched together with webbing, so rather than disrupt her life again like obnoxious paparazzi we left her alone.
We found lots of orb webs hanging from trees, but weren’t able to spot most of their occupants. This one reveals why. It’s Araneus diademata, she’s brown, she’s got this disruptive pigment pattern, and she nestles down in the crotch of a twig where she’s very hard to spot. We probably overlooked a lot of spiders.
We did find a tetragnathid as well, but I kind of hate photographing tetragnathids. They’re so long, and my focal plane is so short and the depth of focus so limited, I can never get them in good focus. Also it was breezy and they hang out in webs that are vibrating in the wind. Those are my excuses, and I’m sticking with them.
Today’s lens that I’m eyeballing furiously: the Venus Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, just because the depth of focus and the wide angle are so tempting. You know you’ve got the camera bug bad when you’re browsing for exotic gadgetry to add to your collection.
Spiders don’t eat those. Instead of being caught in the web, Camera Bugs tend to destroy the web. They have a metallic taste, and are notably lacking nutrients, albeit they aren’t toxic.
Camera Bugs frequently have large internal voids that are sometimes inhabited by Spiders. This doesn’t seem to bother the Camera Bug in the least, but can nonetheless be lethal to the Spider. Camera Bugs are preyed on by a rather bizarre critter called a Photo Nut — which is not actually vegetation despite the name — and the Photo Nuts frequently go Librarian when they find a Spider in the Camera Bug.
We’ve a couple of spiders in the UK that, on being approached, just vibrate their webs. They must be fun to photograph!