Spiders doing spider things.

[Trent Watts]

I lifted the lid on my compost bin and saw these two tiny spiders. At first the one with the smaller abdomen (I think the male) appeared to be attacking the larger one. After watching for a bit it seemed more like a mating ritual with the male stroking the abdomen of the larger bodied spider. It was difficult to see as they were about .5 cm. including the legs.
I have submitted these to BugGuide for help on ID but they are part of the Comb-footed Spider family.

Female

Male

Male approaches female.

Male and female together.

 

[KevinA]

Excellent series Trent. Are these stacked images? If so what do you use?

 

[JimFox]

I am not really a spider guy I guess trent. Just seeing this photos gave me a bit of a shiver, so you did a great job in capturing them.

 

[Trent Watts]

Excellent series Trent. Are these stacked images? If so what do you use?

Thanks Kevin. I use the OM System 90mm Macro with a flash diffuser and f22. The spiders are moving quickly so I don’t think I would be able to stack them. The flash does a good job of stopping action.

 

[KevinA]

Thanks for the info Trent.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice sequence to get to observe/shoot. Good work with the macros.

 

[Trent Watts]

Nice sequence to get to observe/shoot. Good work with the macros.

Thanks Alan.