I've been absent recently due to a late summer trip abroad and accumulating work, but I got to shoot a bit this past week on the hill above the house. I found a nice wasp spider building her nest along the trail. The wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi, Jp. naga-kogane-gumo) is an orb weaver, but quite a bit more unusual than the golder orb weavers around here, which are everywhere. The zig-zag "stabilimentum" in the web center is a characteristic. Body length was about 25mm long.
Hey, Norman!! Long time, no see. Welcome back. Argiope aurantia is probably my favorite spider to shoot. When they build a home, if the hunting is good, they stick around for a while. You've done your usual great job of capturing it. Good to have you back.
Matuka, Adrian, Brian, Tim, thanks to you all, and sorry for being in and out. I've just got so much work these days it's hard to get back here as much as I'd like. I have managed to go back to the web a few times since the shot I posted above, and I've gotten a few better shots (focuswise), but she's moved her web higher, making the distance a bit farther away, so hard to get in close. Based on my printing, this one seems to be the best focused: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/macrophotography/PA045376aw1.jpg
FWIW, this was taken with the Olympus Zuiko 50-200mm lens + EX-25 extension tube, 158mm, 1/8s @ f8
Kenny, thanks! Here in Japan I haven't seen that many Argiopes around; they're a member of the general class of orb weavers, but we have many more "golden orb weavers" (genus Nephila) here--they're very large and flashy spiders, but they're just so common that they don't appeal much to me anymore. My book of Japanese spiders doesn't list the Argiope aurantia (yellow garden orb weaver), so it's apparently not present here in Japan; the brown/black streak down the back seems different to the wasp spiders, which have transverse stripes.
OT: Another reason i've been so off site recently is the US presidential election; I've been spending too much time on political blogs and newssites reading and making comments. Another month and that, too, will pass
