The foggy foggy dew

The only thing I ever done wrong was to forget to take my camera when I took the small dog for a walk on Wednesday morning.  (Sorry to anyone who was hoping to hear a song about protecting Pommie maidens.) On that day the humidity was at dew point and the spiders had been very active with linear webs (see below) on all the Joycea heads.  As I didn't have my camera no images were available but I remedied the situation on Thursday  - when the display was less astonishing.

Arachnophobia warning: if you don't like spiders I suggest that you don't pursue this post too far. 

The first set of webs seen were what I term 'cluster webs' in the Kunzea.
Then there were a few traditional webs.  In this case a leaf-rolling spider has used a fence as its frame.  I tried to capture the occupant but it rapidly dived back into its leaf.
An unusual variant on the theme was what I will term a railway web from the parallel lines of silk.  I had never seen - or least noticed - this style of web before.
There were very few of the single line webs which had attracted my intention originally.  However I did find one, complete with owner: a Jewel Spider.
Also still on patrol was a very traditional spider, guarding a well wrapped parcel of food.
After the deluge of 17 February there was little fog around on the 18th (although humidity was around 70%) but I found this spider lurking in its web.
 When I touched the web it scurried away from the centre of the web, towards the bush to which the web was attached.  As a starter I suggest that (after clicking on the image to get a larger version) folk look at where the main cable joins the plant and notice the number of strands that form that cable.
 To emphasise that point, I have included an image, cropped from the original sized shot,  showing the two lower left legs of the spider and detail of the cable.

Comments

Denis Wilson said…
Surely that last spider is evolving into a Gypsy Violinist.
Great shots Martin.
19 February 2012 at 13:05:00 GMT+11
Flabmeister said…
Thanks Denis. Doing pizzicato I believe!

Martin
19 February 2012 at 19:48:00 GMT+11
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