Spiders - February 2003

Every year here in South Australia during the summer months a certain type of spider becomes fairly common and obvious. The Garden Spider, Eriophora transmarina, (I know, 'cause I looked it up) typically spins a beautiful 'perfect' wheel web right across the garden path where unaware humans will walk into it in the dark. The webs are only built at night and most of the time are pulled down in the early morning hours, except for the main connecting thread.

Previously, to myself these spiders, whilst interesting were rather something to be feared - walking into one of their often very large webs in the dark can be a ghastly experience. However while I was playing around with my new camera, I found them to be fascinating and challenging creatures to photograph.

This year our garden supported four Garden Spiders in total. The best one was a red variety (they come in many colours), quite large, he built his web right across a three metre gap between our house and pergola. Of course, he built it at eye level right across a main thoroughfare, but once we were aware of him, we avoided disturbing him (with the exception of the occasional photographic flash or lighting session).

	After several dud shots I was able to get this fairly decent shot. I was very happy with this shot as the original shows a lot of detail, including a good part of the web itself. I have included a closer look at the spider from this shot to show the detail.

Because this photograph was taken in the dark I was very surprised that the flash didn't bleach him out. I also took a picture of his underside. (One of the advantages of having the spider on the web)

This one was also taken with a flash, but just about the right distance from the subject as to not bleach it out.

You can see his eyes, probably looking at me and thinking, what the hell is that doing?

I'm not a spider lover, but I am not arachnaphobic either. I like to respect the spider's right to exist, and will not kill a spider in my house unless necessary (like a poisonous one in my bathroom or some such) and I allow Huntsman Spiders to roam around the ceilings of the house, as long as they don't get too close.

But I must say, getting a decent photograph certainly demanded me to get closer to these spiders than I normally would. Tight handle on the fight or flight reflex, let me tell you.

The second spider was actually discovered first, before the big red one. This one was a yellow-tan version and had quite a small web about a foot and a bit wide between a pot plant and our little nectarine tree. This one was a little unusual, because he often left his web up all day and just repaired it at night. He would also often come out during the day if a particularly large prey was caught, which enabled me to get a couple of good photos of him.

I caught him munching (or should I say sucking) on a hapless bee. This shot came off really well, a very detailed photo of a spider's butt.

This bee was preyed upon twice. I had been walking past the web one day and happened to notice a European Wasp buzzing around the web. The bee, which had been nicely wrapped and stored in the web was grabbed by the wasp, in mid air, mind you, and stolen. I thought, you little rat. Yet another ecological invention by an introduced species. I wonder if this is a common occurance and has it affected spider populations.

I also took a piccy of him from the other side, but none of the photos came out as well as this one of his butt. I have included the best one here so we can at least see what he looked like from on top.

The photo is just that little bit out of focus as to lose the finer details, bummer.

The other two spiders that used our little corner of land came later in the summer season.

A rather large red one made a very extensive web in part of our Australian native front garden, but he was far too alert for me and ran each time I approached him and he was only there for a short period of time (that I was aware of).

The other was very near and very much like the yellow-tan one hanging off my nectarine tree and I think was either of the same brood or progeny of that one. It was very small and didn't sit on its web much - the web was only about 10 cms wide between two stalks in a pot plant. i tried to photograph it several times with no great success. I saw what I thought was the same spider a little later in the season a little bit larger.

Taking the photos of the spiders was definitely interesting. I certainly learned a lot about my camera and even some basic photographic principles. It was fun playing nature photographer.