Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


March 21, 2009: Argyrodes flavescens and reflections

Yu managed to get out of bed after a long night studying - and here she appears quite awake. We have a fun time - Gabriel, Yu and myself.

mar 21 6151 gabrial yu

I can take video with the D90. This was an experiment using the Tamron 180 mm macro. For a first attempt - not too shabby except the focus. I am scheduled to have my right eye done Tuesday. We'll see if that improves the focus

High Definition video of Argyrodes flavescens extruding drag line silk.

The little lady above is about 2x the size of the babies toward the rear of the Nephila pilipes here

mar 21 5744 nephila pilipes

Sort of suspended

mar 21 5795 nephia suspended

Here you can see reflections and the golden drops of glue on the circumferential strands of the Nephila web

mar 21 5901 golden blue reflection

My focus is improving and this reflection is pretty sharp

mar 21 5910 reflection

Here is an interesting image of the golden glue drops and her drag line that she is manipulating with one of her 4th legs

mar 21 5921 radiant glue

Half the fun of this is trying to figure out what she is doing. Here I'm clueless

mar 21 5958 harvesting silk

Here she is harvesting glue - must be yummy

mar 21 5961 harvesting glue

Here is a good view of her drag line - which she wraps around some of the circumferential strands

mar 21 5992 extruding

Another good reflection. There was little light and so there is some blurring of her 4th leg as she is doing something

mar 21 6011 reflections

A view from the side and another nice reflection of the field and tree behind me

mar 21 6027 argyrodes reflections

Manipulating her drag line silk - being extruded from her spinneret

mar 21 6046 glue dragline manip

I rarely see the dragline - but this morning, almost every image shows it. Here the glue drops are in the same plane as her abdomen - so they are sort of in focus

mar 21 6056 glue drag reflections

Another view of her dragline

mar 21 6080 nephila gluedrops

Here she is doing something with a circumferential strand - perhaps preparing to harvest the golden glue drops

mar 21 6085 nephila glue drops

This is sort of a straddle position. mar 21 6092 nephila glue drops

The hostess, Nephila pilipes

mar 21 6095 nephila pilipes

From the side

mar 21 6099 nephila pilipes side

Here eyes - though the flash reflection sort of overshadows the small eyes.

mar 21 6101 nephila eyes

Another view of her dragline

mar 21 6131 gold drops

Here it appears that there are glue drops on her dragline

mar 21 6133 argyrodes reflections

A better view of her dragline with periodic blobs of something - perhaps glue

mar 21 6139 argyrodes dragline glue drops

A fun morning of spider hunting and a happy couple

mar 21-6152 gabrial yu

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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