Fall orb weavers

[Charles Krebs]

Around here, this is always a good time of year to keep an eye out for these spiders.

All with 200/4 Micro Nikkor and Nikon D300. Electronic flash.

[tpe]

Very nice lighting on those and the last one is a beaut for detail.

I remeber having taken one into the flat one autmn because i thought it may get rid of the moth infection from the flower shop below us. After a little while we had several hundred little spiders running around the appartment. They were really quite beautiful fully formed but so small even the GF thought they looked cute, well untill they dispersed all over the appartment and kept turning up in the oddest places for ages. I was wondering if all the really large ones, that I presume these are, are all pregnant at this time of year?

tim

[Ken Ramos]

Tim commented:

I was wondering if all the really large ones, that I presume these are, are all pregnant at this time of year?

By no means that familar with these things but that seems to be the case from what I can tell. I have noted one or two in the past, their abdomens bursting open and the young scattering about by the hundreds it seems.

I am wondering what that appendage is between the two hind legs. It appears to have a round black something or another on each side of it. Reproductive organ perhaps?

Great photos as usual Charlie, even if they are of a SPIDER!!

[jmlphoto]

haven't posted in a while but always nice stuff charles!

[rjlittlefield]

I am wondering what that appendage is between the two hind legs. It appears to have a round black something or another on each side of it. Reproductive organ perhaps?

Yes. That's the epigynum. See http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/14834 , "Details About Females". Structure and appearance of the epigynum varies hugely between species and is a key character for identification.

--Rik