False Widow

Posted by Richard_Irwin (Belper, United Kingdom) on 27 March 2007 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

A bit of a scary theme developing by accident rather than design - snakes to skulls to spiders - but this shot is of a female False Widow spider, which I found hiding in a banana plant, along with hundreds of its sisters......

This venemous little critter is, I believe, known to hunt and catch true black widows, so not to be messed with, although a lot less venemous to humans than a real widow spider (so I've been told).

Captured on transparency film on my old Nikon FM with 50mm Nikkor lens and close up tubes (yes I was a cm or so away)

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Comments (15)

Chris Sullivan from Melbourne, Australia

Great macro Richard. Their very essence is incredibly 'stay-away-from-me', not one of natures more picturesque species.

27 Mar 2007 12:57am

Chris Sullivan from Melbourne, Australia

**Although you've captured it incredibly well here!!

27 Mar 2007 12:57am

Art Monkey from Salt Spring Island, Canada

wow - great macro - the marking on the back almost looks like a woman with a skirt (upside down)

27 Mar 2007 1:04am

sujit sudhi from Hyderabad, India

That's scary. Great picture nevertheless. Superb!

27 Mar 2007 1:46am

Jerry from Tampa, United States

SUPERB macro Richard! EXCELLENT image!

27 Mar 2007 5:22am

badala from Leiria, Portugal

Very cool shot, excellently composed!

27 Mar 2007 5:24am

Manuela Photography from Hainburg (near Frankfurt/Main), Germany

Stunning shot!

27 Mar 2007 5:47am

ac from Toronto, Canada

Why aren't you running?! j/k
Excellent shot!

27 Mar 2007 7:24am

kmf from Kerala,Kalpkanchery, India

good shot i realy like it

27 Mar 2007 7:26am

shiqi from Singapore, Singapore

woah. really cool shot. the details are great. (:

27 Mar 2007 10:51am

Richard_Irwin from Belper, United Kingdom

I have never been afraid of spiders, despite being attacked and bitten on the back of the neck by a Sac spider once here at home - ouch...it hurt for about a day - but I always treat them with a little respect, and I guess at the end of the day, they keep the more serious pests in check by eating them.....

27 Mar 2007 6:02pm