I usually publish a spider post about this time every year This is it.
I realize that out of fear or revulsion (or both) some folks won’t even look at photos of spiders but I hope most of my readers feel differently. I think spiders are marvels of evolution and many of them are actually beautiful in their own way.
I took all of these photos on Antelope Island yesterday morning. This time of year spiders proliferate in the sagebrush and rabbitbrush near the shore of the Great Salt Lake, in part to take advantage of the billions of brine flies and other flying insects as a food source. Most of the spiders in these photos are types of orb weavers but I won’t attempt to identify them by species for fear of getting one or more of them wrong (I’m no arachnid expert). I’ll include very little text below – the photos mostly speak for themselves.
Most of these photos were taken at f/7.1 with my Canon 7D Mark II and my Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens with a 1.4 extender attached.
A fairly large male walking a tightrope upside down and downhill.
In many of my photos the spider silk they were suspended from was completely invisible so I cropped this image unconventionally to include as much of the web as I reasonably could.
I thought the markings on this female were unusually striking.
The spider silk in many webs is precisely and often even geometrically arranged but it seems this female had a tendency to be just a bit sloppy.
Even though the markings on this one are much more subtle I think he’s a sleek beauty.
Another messy housekeeper.
This hungry lady barely moved the entire time I was there as she (presumably) sucked out the body juices of one or more of her entwined victims.
I don’t want spiders in my house but I find them fascinating and even beguiling in the natural world and that fascination began at an early age. When I was a kid I used to keep spiders, including Black Widows, as pets in our window wells, occasionally throwing a small grasshopper or other insect I’d captured into their web.
Watching how they responded to the proffered food kept me entertained for quite a while. At that age keeping me entertained and out of trouble was an accomplishment that my mother appreciated, despite some misgivings.
Ron
Addendum:
Elsewhere that morning I photographed (poorly) my first White-lined Sphinx Moth of the season. Despite an obvious flaw I decided to include one of those photos here as a “peace offering” to those readers who might not appreciate my spider photos.
I only had a few seconds with the moth as it was feeding on nectar in flight and in my best shot there was a flower cluster in front of its right wing. It did come out more in the open once but dirty camera contacts caused autofocus to stop working so I missed those shots.
Hate it when that happens…
This comes at a good time as we were also
On the same island and notice hundreds of these
Spiders and I took dozens of shots!! Love
Them! Linda
These are wonderful photos, thank you Ron. I have a 7 year old grandson who loves spiders and has taught me a lot. He lives in Texas where the Tarantulas’ sting is about like a bee sting…not dangerous!
‘…he picks them up in the yard and has had several as pets. He even persuaded me to hold one and through him I came to believe what he said – that they are kind creatures!!
I love looking at spiders. When they move AT me, it’s a slightly different story. And very much louder. LOL
Totally late to the party tonight. Read your post this morning and then had to run off to do stuff before I had a chance to comment. Love, love, love these spider posts. Orb weavers are SO freakin’ cool! I truly enjoy having them in my garden. I’m pretty cool with spiders in the house too, as long as they’re not freeloading. š I’d much rather have spiders than some of the other insect species.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but back in the days when we could, both my dad and I had tarantulas as classroom pets. I inherited “Rosie” from him, along with Hermie the hermit crab, for my first middle school classroom.
I go to go “exploring” with my best friend, a neat- footed, part Morgan, mare, named Vienna…I did definitely DID NOT appreciate spiders when I rode through eye-level webs then had one heck of a time getting my eyelashes free of them….
Ron, what an amazing post! I do have a severe fear of spiders and I’m not sure why. The spiders are quite beautiful and some of their webs are attractive. We had spiders on the farm where I grew up especially in the barn and hay maul.
I like the photo of the sphinx moth and the flower and the fact that you got a catch light in the right eye [hope that’s the right word]. Thank you for this post, Ron
I’m glad you liked it, Alice. Thank you.
Beautiful spiders. I find their webs fascinating. I draw the line when it comes to Black Widows though, and we get plenty of them every year. Beautiful spider, but I keep my distance.
Thanks, Jean. I keep my distance from them too.
I used to watch the spiders in one of the barn windows for hours…have always found them graceful and fascinating…our gas station owner once called snd told me to “come over right away”…the subjects of his excitement were some big, beautiful, yellow ORB(?)spiders and their webs in his taxus bushes. They are really beautiful! I love their webs when they are covered with raindrops or dew. I call them “Spider Diamonds” My grandmother lived in Fla. and had two HUGE spiders that” lived in a kleenex box in her bathroom. She called them Uncle Henry and Charie’s Ant. What thry can do is amazing!
Interesting stories, Patty.
Nice collection of Orb Weavers. Did you go down by the marina? That is where I spent time photographing them. When I was there I took one step on the metal walkway to the marina and the spiders dropped to the floor and crawled through the slots. I continued about 5 steps along the plank. Every stop forward more spiders dropped. Spiders don’t bother me but something about the size and mass of spiders creeped me out. I stopped and turned around and went down to the docks by the boat launch and shore.
April, we were west of the marina and other places too.
It must have been fun photographing all those creatures. Well worth the time. Very enjoyable post.
Yes, it was both fun and challenging, Lyle. I’ve never heard my lens focusing motor struggling so much as it was when I was trying to focus on these little guys.
Just yesterday I was admiring some remarkable webs, one of which had a guy rope 4 feet long. The webstriss must have dropped from the upper branch spinning the long guy, tied off, gone back up it, dropped from the same branch to another branch while spinning line, creating 2 legs of a triangle; crossing somehow to the first line, and then beginning her ladder work. How much energy does it take for a spider to create all that webbing insider herself? Spiders rock.
They sure do, Martha. The more one learns about them the more fascinating they become.
I used to be afraid of spiders however Iāve undergone a sea change and only appreciate them now; I follow a bunch of spider scientists on twitter and thatās helped a lot too!
Sounds like an interesting Twitter group, Nicky.
What a lovely post! Thank you.
Thanks, Melanie.
Hello from another spider fan in NE Il. A lovely bittersweet walk through the “summer spent but still lush” local forest preserves will happen soon here. We will marvel at the 100s of dew beaded web chandeliers of the many spider clans breaking up and moving on from the mother nests. Thank you for your post, Ron.
Thank you, Diane.
Very interesting post. I also am interested in spiders as long as they aren’t in the house. I learned by experience many years ago that a Black Widow bite is not deadly. I had one take up residence in a shoe I left on the door step and put my foot into the shoe. Of course she took defensive action. I learned that in order to be treated for the bite you must present the culprit to be identified by the care giver. I had no reaction to the bite and didn’t require any further treatment. Not fun though.
Betty, my father-in-law was bitten by a Black Widow years ago and like you he didn’t react at all. Personally I’d prefer not to take the chance.
Outstanding photos Ron. My sister in law is here visiting and I know that if I showed these to her we might end up having to rush her to the hospital because she would probably have a seizure. I have no fear of them and my wife who had some entomology education while getting her horticulture degree picks them up in the house and relocates them outside. Like much of nature they do far more good than damage.
When it comes to spiders (and snakes) I know folks who react the same way your sister does. Thanks, Everett.
Nice! Spiders are a protected group in our house. Even our cat knows to go āon pointā rather than harm them! BTW, I assume they were not ābaited, set up, or called inā.š
Your assumption is correct, Dick! š
Wow, a trained cat. I’m impressed.
I , too, am very interested in spiders, especially the ones with beautiful patterns on their bodies– some of the orb weavers and the argiopes remind me of Persian or
Navajo rug patterns . I think the legs are what creep most people out about many insects or spiders……
You may be right about the legs and people’s reactions, Kris. That’s probably at least part of it.
I am fascinated by spiders (and the only resident of our home who likes them).
And yes, they are often beautfiful. Even my spider fearing partner admits that our PEACOCK SPIDER is a thing of beauty. It helps that they are tiny.
Loved this post. Thank you.
Wow, as far as I know we don’t have spiders that are anywhere near as colorful as your peacock spiders, EC. I’d love to try to photograph them, even though they’re so tiny.
They are lovely aren’t they? And even soften the hearts of the seriously spider averse.
Do you have them in your yard? Or nearby?
They are in our local area, but I haven’t been lucky enough to see them. Yet.
While they’re not quite as colorful as peacock spiders, I have found Phiddipus Audax in both Western Washington and Northern Idaho in the past. Unfortunately never when I had camera gear with me, so they’re high on my list of species to find!
http://www.patrickzephyrphoto.com/images/large/phidippus-audax.jpg
Glad to see some spiders getting positive attention Ron! Love the orbweaver shots.
I can see why they’d be high on your list, Pangolin. Thank you.
pangolin – what a beauty that is. Yet another species I didn’t know about – thanks for the link.
Thank you both for those links! Absolutely GORGEOUS!
Beautiful! š Well done capturing these and their webs. Sphinx Moths are lovely and a challenge to capture. Spiders, including “daddy long legs” used to terrify me BUT, as long as they aren’t on me, all’s good and I do enjoy watching them – even in the house among the plants only! š Had to run one out of the venturi on my fish pond a 1″ tube that sucks air into the water coming into the filter of my modified stock tank. She was getting “fat” and her web was getting pretty thick and started to affect it’s functioning. A stick collected the web and she came with it to park on the orb web she had outside it.
Judy, the biggest problem I have with spider webs is when they get into the hot water heater flue on my camping trailer. When the water heater suddenly won’t fire up it’s usually because of spider web in there so I have to clean it out.
Well…far from my favorite creature, I can appreciate them for what they do. I too do not anticipate fall for that very reason…the big ones tend to emerge and become more plentiful. They tend to fill a doorway with a web overnight right at face level…I’ve walked into one more times than I’d like to remember only to see ‘the big one’ lurking in the corner ready to rush out to envelop me! Not really but in my mind I see it happening. š« Nothing I hate more than reaching into the tomato leaves to get that extra special looking tomato far in there only to have a big garden spider come out along with it! Good post! š
Kathy, I’ve had a couple of spider bites that gave me pause but I’m still a big spider fan. If I ever had a bite turn necrotic I might feel differently.
WOW, WOW!! Neat spider images! And thanks for the White-lined Sphinx Moth. Even though I’ll try to avoid spiders, yet I’ll take a picture whenever I have the chance. They are very interesting, but I feel that way about anything in nature!
Many thanks for this post, much appreciated.
I’m glad you like them, Dick. Others may feel differently.
In the fall I get a lot of daunting-looking spiders in my garage and I have mixed feelings about that, partly because some of them end up in my house.
I probably shouldn’t, but I have to admit one of my reasons for living in a northern state is to be far far away from nasty spider bites, that in some cases, could do you in! My hat is off to you for your amazing courage! VBG!