Barn (??) spider eating dinner

paddler4

After a year or more of chasing bugs, I finally bought some extension tubes. A week or so later, I lucked out and chanced upon this guy, which I think is a barn spider. It was pretty dark, and through the viewfinder, I could not figure out what the shapeless black mass was where his head should have been. When I put in on the computer, I realized that he was in the middle of eating a bug, stuffing it into his mouth with his pedipalps.

I took this with a Canon 50D, EF-S 60mm 2.8 macro, a 32mm tube, f 16, no stacking, and a 430 EXII onboard with a Demb reflector.



Here is one less enlarged (20mm tube) that shows the critter more clearly for identification. If anyone knows for sure what it is, I'd appreciate the info.



I'm (obviously) new to shooting at this magnification, so I would welcome suggestions.

BTW, the weird background is stained wood behind the spider. because of the web's closeness, I was not able to manipulate the flash to get less light on it.

Lord Vetinari

Well they came out very well. Actually like the background
You have some sensor spots showing which need cloning out, they show more at high mags.
As I suspect you found out shooting macros above 1:1 just makes it a bit harder - lots of practice needed.
Brian v.

jax

It's a European garden spider. aka, a cross spider. The latter name stems from the white pattern on it's back which resembles a cross.

Interesting sidenote about the white spots: A spider lacks a liver and kidneys so waste products are dealt with by extruding them through small canals in the spiders back. Some waste (guanine) is stored in a crystallised form in special 'pockets' close to these canals. To us these these pockets appear as the color white. So if a spider would have no pigment, it'd be white because of this reason. The white spots on the spider you photographed are in effect 'holes' in it's pigment, showing the underlying crystalised guanine..

Nice shot by the way.

paddler4

Thanks to you both. Brian--I'd use a phrase other than "a bit". This guy was nice enough to stay put (2 of 3 times) while I fussed with a tripod. My first attempts at handheld shots with tubes were mostly complete flops. So, I see a lot of practice ahead.

Thanks for pointing out the sensor spots. I was working on a laptop and had missed them. Guess it's time for my first sensor cleaning....

GOLDENORFE

very well done, both look sharp good compositions also.
did you try handheld shots?

Phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/

paddler4

GOLDENORFE wrote:

very well done, both look sharp good compositions also.
did you try handheld shots?

Phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/

Phil,

thanks. I didn't try handheld shots of this guy because he was (mostly) staying put. I did try some of some other critters, and I will see this weekend whether any are worth posting. I'm amazed by those of you who get enough stability in handheld shots to stack images....

Dan

sanka

Definietly a Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus). The coloration and the white spots are a dead giveaway.

paddler4

sanka wrote:

Definietly a Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus). The coloration and the white spots are a dead giveaway.

Thanks. The photo at your link is dead on.

jax

Could be a barn spider.. could still also be a cross spider..

The Araneus diadematus (cross spider) has similar white spots on it's belly..

paddler4

Hmm. Don't know how much to trust the sites I chanced upon, but I googled a few in response to these interchange, and what I came up with is that the two species are very similar, but diadematus is a European species, while cavaticus is a North American species.

jax

True, but the Diadematus is also common in the area you live in.

embender

Have the photos been removed? They are not coming up for me.

paddler4

embender wrote:

Have the photos been removed? They are not coming up for me.

They still show for me, but you can also find them in my bug gallery:
http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/Nature/Bugs/5399423_oL5iD/1/647248644_Evz3R

embender

paddler4 wrote:

They still show for me, but you can also find them in my bug gallery:
http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/Nature/Bugs/5399423_oL5iD/1/647248644_Evz3R

Thanks, Paddler4, that let me view them. Those are very nice! And I enjoyed looking at the rest of your bugs, you have some really amazing and beautiful shots in there.