16 September 2013
Monday macrobug: Garden spider
Posted by Callan Bentley
Found this lovely garden spider while working in the yard on the last day of August…
It’s a big beastie; here’s a pencil tip for scale:
I induced her to briefly face upward:
…but she definitely preferred to be oriented head-down:
I then crouched lower, and aimed the camera up, resulting in a different exposure and a different color “feel”…
Then she got sick of me and my camera, and crawled off to some vegetative shelter: a thistle plant:
And there I left her, me gloriously impressed with this beautiful creature…
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
‘Tis the season:
http://microecos.tumblr.com/post/61227387245/argiope-aurantia-living-up-to-her-name
Neato!
Here’s a link to the great spider cape, made with silk from a million Madagascarian relatives of your garden spider.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/