Silver orb spider

Identification - silver orb spider - Leucauge granulata

I awoke this morning with a mild headache, unfortunately, the pain was amplified by bending down, which meant that photographing grass subjects was out of the question today. I suspect that the headache was caused by a coughing fit that I had last night, when I choked on some food.

So today I am confined to the house and a back-up blip. The only relevant subject that I had was this very strange orb spider in my mini garden, which I discovered over a week ago, I have probably shot a hundred images over the last week, trying all types of settings, lighting and flash. The light colored stripes on the abdomen are extremely reflective, the textured surface acting like glass beads, catching the light like the stripes on a traffic cops vest.

The spider has several features that I wanted to show: the silvery reflective qualities, the twin row of bumps on the back of the abdomen, the curious angle of the abdomen in relation to the carapace (thorax), the group of six eyes, not all arachnids have eight eyes, the spindly legs and the delicate web. I did consider constructing a combination shot, but figured that one spindly spider on your screen was enough to have to cope with.

I could not capture the reflective qualities without presenting you with a neon mess with all detail lost, so you will just have to take my word for it. The side view was very good, but I chose an off center rear view to show the bumps. This view captures all the features except the eyes, so I am happy. This was a difficult subject, taking 85 shots for six images to choose from, so I put the rest in folio for those of you interested. As with all my insect shots, you really have to view large to appreciate the detail.

My guess on a phobic scale of 1 - 10 is that this spider would score quite high, with it's spindly long legs, strange shape and striking markings, not to mention that it is extremely fast! But size wise, the spider is quite diminutive, about 6mm long not counting the legs.

Dave