Hargrove Annual Report 2003: Spider

Jim's Goes Nuts Over Spiders

Jim got started taking pictures of spiders more or less by accident. He and Linda were birding at Hornsby Bend, one of the many sewage ponds they have visited searching for birds. We had Linda's new digital camera, a Canon Powershot S400. In the birding blind we saw a large spider suspended in her web. I snapped a picture, which turned out to be much better than expected. It was easy to identify the spider as a Black-and-yellow Garden Spider, Argiope aurantia. I have since learned that this is the first spider photo for many people. It is easy to see, easy to photograph, and quite lovely, especially when you zoom in on the image. Here's a thumbnail of that first picture. Click to get a larger view.

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After that, I started looking for spiders to photograph. The first triumph was the picture of Neoscona oaxacensis, a fairly common spider that I had to ask help identifying. I've arranged several different presentations of the photos. Take your choice of how you want to look at them.

• My Top Ten
• All Spider Pictures in Chronological order.
• Taxonomic
  • Neoscona species. These are my favorites
  • Gasteracantha. These are all photos of the same species, but they don't all look the same.
  • Wolf Spiders. This includes several different genera, all closely related.
  • Phlocus species. These "Daddy Longleg Spiders" have small bodies, but are true spiders.
• Unidentified Maybe you can help us identify these.
• New Photos. Taken in 2004.