Wasp Spiders Galore

It seems to be a good year for Wasp Spiders at Paxton. We found well over a dozen during a survey of quite small area of the Pits. Mostly they were in groups of two or three which I haven't seen before (or anyway noticed). Here are a few photographed with different techniques - either smallish aperture so good depth of field or focus-stacked with a narrow DOF.  The first image is an image stacked with Zerene stacker software while the second is an in-camera jpg stack. 

Wasp's Attempt at Theft Foiled

My eye was caught by this wasp trying to steal prey from a spider's web. It had just about sawn off the fly's head  to take away when the spider Enoplognatha spp) arrived arrived on the scene. The wasp tried to escape but it was caught by strands of the web until its struggles broke the connection and it flew away. Interesting it had its sting out in the final frame - wonder if the spider or wasp would have won if it had not got free.

 

More Tales from the Garden

We had both of  the large hoverfly Hornet mimics in the garden yesterday (Volucella inanis and zonaria ) - here V. zonaria caught in flight at 1/10,000 second a Green-veined White at 1/4000. The bee was probably too large and dangerous a prey for the flower spider! The Ruddy Darter is a new species for the pond and good to record two different Harvestmen under the same log pile. Finally a couple of very attractively marked green bugs (Hemiptera)

More Garden Species

Here is the latest batch from our garden, some of them very small and some new species for my list!.

Full Spectrum Photography in Cambridge

I took my full-spectrum camera into Cambridge in the week as I am still intrigued by what scenes look like when captured across the entire light spectrum, including ultraviolet, visible and infrared light. Some of the images taken in full sunlight I found I couldn't process in colour to produce an image that I liked but they converted well to  monochrome. However, I do like the tones and colours of images taken in shade and the  interior shots where presumably there is less ultraviolet getting through. These were taken without any external filters - I need to experiment more with my set of these to understand how theory relates to practice!

Close Encounters by the Garden Pond

Sitting quietly in the shade by my pond cooling down after attacking a few over enthusiastic brambles etc, I was visited by this very beautiful male Southern Hawker. He spent a long while going round the edges of the pond and also inspecting me. After a while he flew away and a female arrived again flying right up to me but this time dropping down onto the moss at my feet and started laying. They were never there together so did he communicate with the female as to a good area for laying and how? (Four other pond inhabitants include the Pirate Water spider Pirata piraticus)