Orchard Spider

I found this Orchard Spider in my daughter's garden in Brooklyn, CT in the USA. I've never had much success photographing this spider here in Florida. The light is too bright here--even on overcast days.

The Venusta Orchard Spider (Leucauge venusta), can be found from Southern Canada to Panama. they can be seen in woodlands. They build their webs in low shrubs or small trees, close to the ground.

Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver

This Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver is one of my favorite spiders to photograph. I like their smiley faces on their backs and their colors.

These spiders are fairly common in this part of Florida. I can see them on most any days in my backyard; which is where I spotted this one. They're pretty small, only about 3/8" in diameter, but their webs are distinct, so they're easy to spot. They can be found in woodland edges and shrubby gardens and their favorite food is small insects.

Settings used for making this image are as follows: ISO 400, partial metering off the spider in aperture priority mode; 1/250 at F10 for greater depth of field and +1 2/3 exposure compensation because he was backlit against the sky and I wanted to retain detail in his head. I used fill flash at -2 exposure compensation to keep the whites from blowing out and I used my Tamron F2.8 90mm macro lens. This was shot hand held; but I recommend using a tripod whenever shooting macro shots. In this case, this spider was quite a bit over my head, so a tripod wasn't practical.

Golden Silk Spider

It's been raining, raining, raining here in St Petersburg all week; so I haven't had much of a chance to go out shooting. While going back through some of my unprocessed files from last month, I spotted one of my favorite spiders--the Golden Silk Spider.

If you live in Florida, you are very familiar with these spiders. They are huge, but relatively harmless. They won't bite unless picked up or pinched and their bite only stings for a couple seconds. Actually, a bee sting is more painful. The just look scarry because of their size. Their body alone is more than an inch in length not counting the head and those long legs. They are the only spider that spins a golden web stretching from 26-36" in diameter. They're usually spun between two trees or shrubs. Due to web support requirements, they are usually pretty spread out.

In order to show the golden threads of her web (yes, this is the female) I shot this using the Cloudy setting for White Balance. That's roughly about 6,000 Kelvin Degrees F. It also has to be shot with about a 45 - 90 Deg. lighting for it to show up. Fortunately, because of their size and the fact that these spiders need a lot of room for their webs, they're easy to spot in the woods. You don't want to miss spotting one, though, because that web is strong and sticky. YUK! Hunters hate them. That's OK, because I don't like trophy hunters very much, either. It's senseless killing. Shoot them with a camera--no one gets hurt.

Mabel Orchard Spider

I shot this Mabel Orchard spider while on my meetup in Ft Desoto. These spiders are really tiny, and it's the first time I've ever gotten a shot decent enough to print.

While this one isn't perfect, I like it anyway. I'd probably give it a 4 out of 5 stars if I were to rank it. I'd like to have seen a little more detail where his eyes are.

Mabel Orchard Spiders (leucauge mabelae) are in the Large-jawed Orb Weaver family (Tetragnathidae). They are easily recognized by their unusually large, powerful jaws, or chelicerae. They have 8 eyes and 3 claws on each tarsus. These spiders are only 1/2". Mabel Orchard spiders can be found in woodland edges and shrubby meadows from New England to Florida and west to Texas and Nebraska.

This species hangs below its web until prey is detected, or waits on a stem nearby with 1 leg in contact with a web strand.

Orchard spiders differ from other large-jawed spiders in possessing a small plate underneath thath protects the opening of the female sex organs.

Spider Carrying Leaf

This spider was working really hard trying to carry this leaf up through his web. We watched him for a while and he eventually dropped the leaf.

This photo was taken 12/11/07 during an early morning walk through Sawgrass Lake Park in St Petersburg, FL.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to identify the species of this spider.

If you enjoy my blog and want to see more of my work, check out my website at http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.

Thanks for looking,
Loyce