Photo of the day.

[moonvoice]

This gal has been living on our Corymbia ficifolia for a little while. She's lovely. I can normally approach her during the day and she won't move. But yesterday I came out with the camera, and she went right into attack mode. She went out of her restful position and lunged at the camera several times, in different ways.
She's really beautiful, and I hope she's finding lots of things to eat in our garden.

Comments

[silverjackal]

Perhaps the camera reminded her of a giant eye? She'd have reason to fight back if it was! She's also charmingly fuzzy.

[moonvoice]

Yeah, that was probably it. Plus it was really windy yesterday / had been raining on and off all day, so she might have already been agitated. I went out to check on her again today, and she was resting in her usual spot, and didn't seem bothered by me or the camera at all (but it was still too windy to get a good pic).

She's really pretty. I love fuzzy spiders. Heh. I mean, I don't love them in my house, but when they're in the garden doing their thang out there; I get ridiculously attached. I should probably warn Glen though, so I don't here random girly shrieking one day when he encounters her.

She was super feisty though. So willing to take on 'giant camera of doom.'

[silverjackal]

She was super feisty though. So willing to take on 'giant camera of doom.'

She was convinced she was at immanent risk of being devoured, and so gave it her all!

The common species of garden spider here changes colour to match the flowers (well, tan or grey in coloured blooms, white in white). We also have Cat-faced spiders that get very large indeed, and spin webs with such stout silk that I can feel a slight bounce when I inadvertently walk through the anchor line. (I try not to disrupt their webs if possible, but sometimes I don't see them and they're right across the path.) We also have these very common little jumping spiders which are tiny (3-4 mm at most), but who can leap prodigious distances and are clad in a very charming furry coat of alternating black and white lines. I'm particularly fond of those, though they're a real challenge to carry outside successfully.

[moonvoice]

Speaking of awesome jumping spiders, have you ever seen the mating ritual of the awesome peacock jumping spider?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgAbyYDFeg

It's like something a bird of paradise would do.

We get a lot of jewel like jumping spiders around here. Christmas spiders. And of course the always unwelcome redbacks, whitetails, wolf spiders and so on. *shudders*

[silverjackal]

I have seen them before, but I never tire of them. So beautiful, and so *weird* for an arachnid! I always get a kick out of the multiple eyes of jumping spiders, and how you can see them looking at things. :)

[stephbg]

I took a photo of a peacock jumping spider just the other day:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.154948241701.114656.705946701&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=10150351357146702&set=a.154948241701.114656.705946701&type=3&theater

[silverjackal]

Good photo of a not-easy subject! I've tried photographing spiders before without much success, because I really don't have the proper lens for it.

[stephbg]

Thanks! My camera is nothing special - just a point-and-shoot in macro mode, but I do have a short tripod which makes a big difference. I usually photograph rocks and crystals that don't move about quite so much as jumping spiders :-)

[fadedwings]

very cool!

[moonvoice]

She's so purdy!

[amalnahurriyeh]

How lovely! I am not a fan of spiders, but my current house seems to have many of them trying to come inside to escape the cold, so we've reached a detente. (Like you, I like them fine outside. Where they belong.)

[moonvoice]

Once they're inside, I become like the Shepherd of Death. Lol. Outside - and provided it's not lethal or a huntsman - I'm generally like 'awwww loooook.'

[paleo]

You'd be cranky too if paparazzi interupted your daily chores! :-P I love how gardens are worlds unto themselves. Thanks for sharing yours.

[moonvoice]

Lol, I suppose I would be cranky if the paparazzi interrupted me!

[red_trillium]

Maybe she's a bit camera shy?? Or the other local paparazzi had already irritated her???? ;)

[moonvoice]

Heh. Totally camera angry!

Aaagghhh!

[perzephone]

No, actually, she's quite pretty. I like her stripey legs.

Re: Aaagghhh!

[moonvoice]

Hee. I think she's pretty too. Also, she's not in our house, which increases her 'not as scary' factor. Also, she's not a killer spider.

Re: Stripey Spiders

[perzephone]

I'm at peace with our local population of brown widows. There's a little indent that runs around the base of our house outside along the sidewalks & back porch. Every summer we get brown widows out there. They are relatively small compared to black widows, and extremely timid. Rather than stand their ground & making aggressive displays when poked at, they run. So I let them be. We've even escorted a few outside instead of killing them outright. Bark scorpions are probably the best cure for arachnophobia that I've ever seen - now both me & Rob are like, "woo, spiders!" because the places populated by the spiders aren't populated by the scorpions >.<

And that peacock spider video is frikkin' cute! Their eyes make me think of lemurs or aye-ayes.

[jensurvivor]

Behind the cut because spider lol!
Very pretty. And I'll take your word for it it isn't poisonous. We don't have to worry about such things up here and are out of practice.

[bunny_m]

Well, not poisonous enough to matter, anyhow. (This is Australia, y'know.) =]

But really, they are pretty placid little spiders, and would much rather save that venom for a meal than bite great big clumsy things like people, dogs or cats.

[Edited to add the word I completely forgot to put in the first time, for I haz teh dumbz.]

;>.>

[bunny_m]

Yay, orb-weaving spider!

They are such a pretty group, and generally very good neighbours. I mean, the webs across walkways and such can be an unpleasant surprise occasionally, but both they and their webs are very pretty and they are awesome at stopping the insect hordes from devouring us all.

Plus I just love the way that the red parts of their legs are hidden when they are napping, leaving just a pale fuzzy lump that doesn't look at all like a spider. ^_^

[moonvoice]

They really are pretty. I prefer the jumping spiders for pure aesthetics, but I love the orb weavers for functionality in keeping the garden pest free! :D

[white_rabbit]

What a cool spider! How big is she? O_O

Outside? I think spiders are pretty awesome and epic and beautiful. I really like them and the role they fill in nature.

When they're inside though all bets are off. :|

[moonvoice]

Ummm... maybe, oh god, I have no idea. Not that big. Maybe about three centimetres? She'll get a little bigger, I think.

[white_rabbit]

.. Three centimetres is not that big? ;_;

[freyakitten]

Nah, orb weavers get much bigger.

One of my icons (Spiderling) is a huntsman, only a couple of days old. That spider is about a centimetre...

[freyakitten]

Let me rephrase that - some orb weavers get much bigger :P

[moonvoice]

I actually quite like baby huntsmen, when they're like a centimetre or two, are are not skittering like aliens in our house (I have a super low tolerance for adult huntsmen, by which I mean - I get the heebie jeebies).

[stephbg]

I harness the power of our outdoor spiders to catch bugs that I feed to the fish. All very organic :-)

[unaspenser]

Wow, very cool! How big is it?

[moonvoice]

About three centimetres - but that's not stretched out. :) That's while resting.

[unaspenser]

Whoa!

[clare_dragonfly]

What a gorgeous spider!

[spider_fox]

:DDD

[silere]

I am very appreciative of an encounter with Spider several years ago that completely erased my former phobia of them. Now i can see how beautiful they are. I still escort most of the ones i find in the house outside, however. If i find one in my bed while i'm trying to sleep, my instinctive flinch reaction takes over and i smash it. Or flail and strip the bed until i find it, and go sleep somewhere else. That's the one place i cannot handle them, ever.

Thanks for the link on the peacock spider, too.. that was very cool.

[redsixwing]

What a pretty one she is!

[nachtrabe]

That is a really amazing picture.