Black wood spider

Identification - Nephila Kuhlii, black wood spider.

Back in March, I blipped a similar spider from this view. It looked very similar to today's Kuhlii but it was not quite right. I eventually identified it as Nephila antipodiana and now you can see the similarities and differences. From any other view there is a world of difference.

I am currently reading The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Russel Wallace. I am a slow reader and after a few weeks I'm just about half way through. It is interesting to read of some of the names of people that he met on his travels. Only yesterday, I read of his meeting with Dr Doleschall, a Hungarian entomologist, who first discovered today's spider at around about the same time as meeting Wallace.

The scientist unselfishly named the spider after Heinrich Kuhl, another naturalist who spent a lot of time in this part of the world, progressing the knowledge of the wildlife. Like many scientists doing this work, he died here in Indonesia of an infection. It was not the healthiest of places to visit back in those days.

I will write more on Wallace when I have finished reading.

Dave