{"id":1212,"date":"2008-09-15T00:09:05","date_gmt":"2008-09-14T23:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1212"},"modified":"2013-11-19T19:20:43","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T19:20:43","slug":"the-female-of-the-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/the-female-of-the-species\/","title":{"rendered":"The Female of the Species…"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

As promised, this thread is about spiders, so look away now if you don't share my fascination! :bug:<\/p>\n

I had thought about posting a variety of species, but in the end decided to stick with my original plan which is to show an interesting interaction between two spiders. Initially, I had thought I was witnessing some sort of attack by a smaller predator on a much larger spider. Wrong! It turns out that I was watching part of the mating ritual of Araneus diadematus<\/i>, the common Garden Spider. <\/p>\n

The female garden spider sits in her web all day and night and waits to catch flies. If disturbed she may run for cover under a leaf. It's one of the most familiar sights in an English garden. She's the moderately large, pale and patterned spider, often seen setting up a web across garden borders and shrubberies. Less commonly seen (because so much smaller) is the male. In these photos he is approaching the female with significant caution. There was plenty of arm waving on his part, and he would repeatedly approach the female only to retreat at the last moment. She remained firmly in the centre of the web, occasionally waving a fore-limb in warning. The male's caution is understandable. If mistaken for prey, he'll be eaten. :yikes:<\/p>\n

I've seen this now on a couple of occasions, and the general behaviour was the same each time. In both instances the male retreated.<\/p>\n

Araneus diadematus<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Camera note: Canon EOS 40D with a Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens. For light I used the Canon 430EX flash unit.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1009],"tags":[1132],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behaviour","category-spiders-2","tag-spider","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t