Saturday's Critters - Cross Spider

While I was out taking photos of my plants the other day, this little critter practically dropped into my face.  I quickly shifted focus to try and capture a few shots to join in with Eileen at Saturday's Critters.  I've been wanting to link up there for a long time but I never seem to find any critters that don't get away before I have my camera ready.

I couldn't really see the spider web until I downloaded the photos and I've changed the exposure a bit so that the spider web is more visible.

I'm not a spider expert but it looks like this one is called Araneus diadematus or a Cross Spider.  The cross spider is sandy brown to burnt orange with pale spots in a cross shape on its large abdomen.  The cross spider is an orb-web spider known for constructing enormous circular webs to catch prey like flies and mosquitoes. They inhabit gardens, hedgerows, meadows and woodlands, and are often found in rural areas of BC including buildings with exterior lighting. (Source Terminix Canada).

This spider and possibly other spiders have been spinning webs in the garden like crazy this summer and there have been various kinds of spiders in the house too.  I've seen a lot of cobwebs in the garden but this is the first time I've watched the spider in action.  I didn't disturb it but I've read that a female cross spider can lay 300 to 900 eggs.

These are a few photos from the garden using a new to me lens I borrowed just to try it out. I didn't get to experiment too much because the light faded rapidly as night fell.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a safe weekend.

October Draws to a Close

In these closing days of the month most people will probably write about Hallowe'en.  I don't celebrate Hallowe'en so this isn't that kind of post but the photo content seems to fit the season.

This is a different sort of post for me.

I'm featuring a few photos and an attempt at a verse to go along with them.

spiders spin your web

on tangled roots standing tall

and catch bloated drops

 

  If you like to write poetry (it doesn't need to be Haiku) perhaps you would like to share a short verse about the two photos in the comment section.

That might be fun!

Haiku My Heart


If you don't want to do that, that's fine too.

Our World Tuesday



I wish you the very best for a fantastic November.