Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


March 17, 2010: Cyrtophora and Telamonia

What a surprise this morning. I was sort of waiting to go to Changi for a photo shoot in Krabi Thailand and realized I could do a bit of spider hunting. So off I went. First I found a small Gaussian web of Cyrtophora here are the support strands. Oh - also I'm experimenting with using a polarizing filter with flash to minimize burnout.

mar 17 4286 cyrtophora supports

Here is the mesh of the Cyrtophora web

mar 17 4289 cyrtophora mesh

And here is the owner - Cyrtophora moluccensis

mar 17 4292 cyrtophora moluccenis

Then I found a large mound of sand - constructed by a colony of ants

mar 17 4329 ant sand pile

Here is moving sand - one grain at a time

mar 17 4296 moving sand

Building a sand pile

mar 17 4309 building sand pile

Then a real surprise. A stationary moth - that when I approach, turned out to be a jumping spider, Telamonia dimidiata having caught the moth

mar 17 4341 telamonia dimidiata

Another view

mar 17 4353 telamonia dimidiata

And another view

mar 17 4361 telemonia dimidiata

Caught

mar 17 4364 caught

And Parawixia silk. There is some apparent motion artifact and its either the CP filter causing this or my pressing the shutter

mar 17 4369 parawixia silk

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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