I was taking pictures of the zinnias today and noticed this on the underside of a zinnia. It is amazing what we learn when we take the time to observe things in nature. I didn't realize that spiders would eat like this, I always thought they ate what was trapped in their webs. Spiders are most certainly not my favorite things to observe, in fact I hate even looking at pictures of them in books, so I'm not even sure why I'm putting this on my blog other than it is something I've not seen before. I'll probably have spider nightmares tonight like I always did when I was young. I don't like spiders and really, most of my nightmares as a child had something to do with spiders in my bed, or hanging down in front of me as I opened my eyes. I just knew they were real, I could see them, but they always disappeared when my parents came to see what was wrong with me.
As much as I dislike spiders, and we have lots of them around here, I don't spray for them because they too are beneficial insects. The cucumber beetle that this spider is eating is harmful and they are known to cause damage to certain trees and they also eat dahlias, peonies, and hibiscus leaves.
6 comments:
Some spiders set up webs and wait, others go out and prowl... Good photo, but yes it is a bit gross. Though i don't have a problem with spiders in general
Cool! (from a guy, of course :)
I'm not a big spider fan either, but I've posted my share of photos of them. They're a part of life in the garden and do a valuable service, as you noted.
Some spiders, like wolf and crab spiders, are hunters rather than "gatherers." ;-) I'm not sure what kind this is, though.
Do you have a special lens of your camera, or was this just the macro setting?
Spiders = ugly, but good bugs
Black widows = bad nasty creatures
What a way cool shot!!! I love the wolf and "jumping" spiders that hunt during the daytime. I had one who lived near the sweet woodruff bed last year. Whenever I went that way he would come out of his little hiding place, look at me, decide I was way too big to have for lunch, and crawl back in. :)
Kate, I remembered that you also have the A-100. I didn't use it to take these photos. I used my Sony F-717 in the macro mode. I've yet to be able to take good pictures with the A-100 macro setting yet. I think I need a different lens to accomplish good macro pics.
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