Over the past year I have been surprised not only at the numbers of spiders around the garden but also their variety. Look closely at the gravelled area of the garden and one can be seen every few centimetres. Another favoured place is near the corners of windows. Here are a few, as yet unidentified.
One of the largest seen at about 40mm though much bigger if the legs were straightened out!
This small one ( about 14mm) was disturbed in the gravel in the fruit cage.
All these seem to prefer windows.
It is only recently I have come to appreciate the variety of patterns on spiders. They can be quite beautiful in their own way. All the photographs were taken with the Lumix TZ7 with the lens about 60mm away from each subject.
That first one looks a monster John.
ReplyDeleteI bet you could train that to fetch sticks!
Seen in such detail they are amazing little creatures, some not so little of course :) The patterning on the last one is quite something!
ReplyDeleteI reckon I could Keith ;)
ReplyDeleteHi John - Close-ups do reveal amazing features of these and other creatures. I do find them fascinating, but from a distance ;) What I found interesting was watching a spider snip out something that landed in its web that was not edible, such as a piece of leaf.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is the season for spiders, they are everywhere, and just so beautiful if you take the time to look closely. I have always wondered about the plain, soil coloured spiders that run over the soil in my veg patch all Summer. There are thousands of them and I wonder what they eat?
ReplyDeleteGreat images, The first one is a House spider, the third is one of the crab spiders, they can change colour so that is not much help. The penultimate one I would guess is a Harvester. All guesses really so no gold star today.
ReplyDeleteShivers John, although I should say I don't have a problem with spiders really. A warning was a good idea for some though.
ReplyDeleteMy shivers came with your excellent clear detail. I have to admit to scrolling down quickly with that. I didn't stop to look at the patterns on the way past.
Wishing you a great weekend of wildlife watching... even the spiders. You should try a species count. That might be fun.
Mm... maybe I shouldn't have looked at this post quite so late and just before going to bed ;-)
They are Jan. The always look so much hairier in close up.
ReplyDeleteHello Glo. I don't mind them as long as they are not rushing around indoors though I rarely get them in since I installed some ultrasonic pest scarers. I've not seen a spider remove unwanted material from a web - fascinating.
ReplyDeleteHello Matron. I think the ground spiders found in large numbers are what are known as wolf spiders - because people used to think they hunted in packs. There must be plenty of small creatures around to feed them all.
ReplyDeleteThank you Adrian. Your idents could well be correct. I'm glad the 'house spider' decided it was better off in the fruit cage.
ReplyDeleteHello Shirl. I know fear of spiders is a fairly common phobia, like me with moths, so it is only fair to warn people. Sometime close photos can be worse than seeing the real thing.
ReplyDeleteA species count would be interesting. Hope you didn't dream about hairy eight legged monsters.