Spinning a Web

During a longish break in the rain I found this native Novaranea orb web spider building a new web. At 5mm body length she is half-grown. I could not see the web, just the spider suspended in mid-air. I brought out a stool and sat down to watch her for about half an hour.

The light was constantly changing between grey and bright. I took over 100 photos, rapidly altering ISO and exposure and trying to track her erratic movements. Hardly any turned out as I would hope. She was such a tiny speck in the air.

This shot was taken when she had finished and was about to eat the wee fly that blundered into the partly finished web. She had quickly wrapped it up and went on spinning. You can see the mess the capture made in the web.

In extras there are two more shots. One is when I first saw her, at that point I could not see the web with the naked eye. The other shows how she uses two threads from her spinnerets to make the radial lines.

In the last 4 days we have had 40mm of rain- a great respite from the drought. Already the countryside is turning green.

Wonderful news about Blipfuture. But don’t be put off adding to the pledges. The more there is in the kitty the better the new Blipfoto will be.