Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Fishing Spiders

After finishing my lunch by the pond at Innovation Place I took a quick look where I usually spot the fishing spiders. They're not always visible so I wasn't expecting too much. But there were two large ones, one right by the edge of the concrete. I backed away slowly and pulled my camera out of my pack. You can see the two of them in this photo, one out of focus in the background.

Fishing spider with egg sac

This is a female carrying and guarding its egg sac. When I got too close with the camera it moved slightly, but still stayed within view. (When they dive underwater it's very hard to find them again.)

Fishing spider with egg sac

Fishing spider with egg sac

The one below was on the underside of a web. Fishing spiders are hunters, they don't use webs to catch prey. But they do spin "nursery" webs to protect their offspring. Most spiders and insects lay their eggs and forget about them, but not these guys.

These photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix ZS100. I wish the telephoto was sharper, but I think you'll agree, the macro mode is excellent. It's difficult to get the focus right. I set it to focus on a single point (which you can select with the touch screen) and then take a number of shots trying to get the focus on the right point.

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