Funnel weaver spider eyes, and "feathers"
Nikon D40, 200mm Micro-Nikkor f/4.5 AI-S lens focused at infinity, aperture f:32, with a 38mm f:1.9 Soligor Elitar lens from an 8mm movie camera reverse mounted on the 200mm. Flash lighting from a Nikon SB-23 speedlight bounced off foil reflectors.
The arrival of September and cooler evenings brings an increase in the number of male funnel weaver spiders that decide to explore my basement looking for females. There are definitely more ladies outside than in, but that doesn't seem to matter. I found this guy on my basement wall, captured him in a small plastic food container and examined him under a 40x stereo microscope. He had evidently been in and out of the kitty litter box because he was dusted with "Feline Pine", my picky cat's choice of litter box filler. Wanting to get some close-up pics, I put him through the same cleaning procedure I used on a wolf spider several years ago... but this time without complete success. Here he's in the cup after removing all but one last stubborn piece of litter that was stuck firmly to one eye. I was using a probe made from a cat whisker taped to a toothpick, along with a small blower bulb. This worked well in the past, and the plastic cup did a good job of preventing him from sprinting away. But... the harder I worked to remove that last bit, the more frantic his panicky movements became. Long minutes of him jumping, tumbling, and skittering around the cup while dodging the whisker yielded nothing. The speck of litter was seemingly super-glued in place. I decided to try to "chill him out" by putting him in the fridge for few minutes. I really didn't like doing that, but there was no other option available if I wanted to get a good shot... without resorting to removing it in Photoshop. A few minutes later he was in the cup under the scope and I was positioning him for good access to the stubborn piece of litter. The tall sides of the cup were preventing a "low angle" attempt to pry it off with the whisker, so I moved him to a food container lid, its low lip giving me a much better shot at removing the speck. A very slow movement of the tip of one leg should have prompted me to hurry. With one leg held gently in needle-tip tweezers and the cat whisker just about to touch the speck, he "exploded" into life. My view of him through the scope was far larger than what you see in this pic, so his abruptly coming to full violently animated life was enough to cause me to lurch backwards away from the bench. Although I like photographing spiders, I really don't want them on me or in my clothes. Looking quickly around, I found he had bolted from the lid, the very low sides not even slowing him down, and was just disappearing off the end of the bench where it nearly touches the wall. Twenty minutes of hunting for him on my hands and knees with a flashlight turned up nothing. Hours later I found him on a notebook and immediately chucked him in a terrarium I keep ready for visiting spiders.
Certain spiders have modified hairs closely resembling feathers on their body somewhere. Here, tiny "feathers' are visible just below the eye with the speck of kitty litter stuck on it. The best view is at the largest size.
DSC-8669-N
Funnel weaver spider eyes, and "feathers"
Nikon D40, 200mm Micro-Nikkor f/4.5 AI-S lens focused at infinity, aperture f:32, with a 38mm f:1.9 Soligor Elitar lens from an 8mm movie camera reverse mounted on the 200mm. Flash lighting from a Nikon SB-23 speedlight bounced off foil reflectors.
The arrival of September and cooler evenings brings an increase in the number of male funnel weaver spiders that decide to explore my basement looking for females. There are definitely more ladies outside than in, but that doesn't seem to matter. I found this guy on my basement wall, captured him in a small plastic food container and examined him under a 40x stereo microscope. He had evidently been in and out of the kitty litter box because he was dusted with "Feline Pine", my picky cat's choice of litter box filler. Wanting to get some close-up pics, I put him through the same cleaning procedure I used on a wolf spider several years ago... but this time without complete success. Here he's in the cup after removing all but one last stubborn piece of litter that was stuck firmly to one eye. I was using a probe made from a cat whisker taped to a toothpick, along with a small blower bulb. This worked well in the past, and the plastic cup did a good job of preventing him from sprinting away. But... the harder I worked to remove that last bit, the more frantic his panicky movements became. Long minutes of him jumping, tumbling, and skittering around the cup while dodging the whisker yielded nothing. The speck of litter was seemingly super-glued in place. I decided to try to "chill him out" by putting him in the fridge for few minutes. I really didn't like doing that, but there was no other option available if I wanted to get a good shot... without resorting to removing it in Photoshop. A few minutes later he was in the cup under the scope and I was positioning him for good access to the stubborn piece of litter. The tall sides of the cup were preventing a "low angle" attempt to pry it off with the whisker, so I moved him to a food container lid, its low lip giving me a much better shot at removing the speck. A very slow movement of the tip of one leg should have prompted me to hurry. With one leg held gently in needle-tip tweezers and the cat whisker just about to touch the speck, he "exploded" into life. My view of him through the scope was far larger than what you see in this pic, so his abruptly coming to full violently animated life was enough to cause me to lurch backwards away from the bench. Although I like photographing spiders, I really don't want them on me or in my clothes. Looking quickly around, I found he had bolted from the lid, the very low sides not even slowing him down, and was just disappearing off the end of the bench where it nearly touches the wall. Twenty minutes of hunting for him on my hands and knees with a flashlight turned up nothing. Hours later I found him on a notebook and immediately chucked him in a terrarium I keep ready for visiting spiders.
Certain spiders have modified hairs closely resembling feathers on their body somewhere. Here, tiny "feathers' are visible just below the eye with the speck of kitty litter stuck on it. The best view is at the largest size.
DSC-8669-N