Work spiders

A couple of days ago, while I was walking in to work from the parkade I spotted a spinybacked orbweaver (gasteracantha cancriformis)and it’s web strung between some shrubs and a tree. Almost ran into the darned thing. They’re one of the neater looking spiders I’ve come across. Tried to get some pictures of it with my cell phone, but the camera’s autofocus kept focusing on the background. The next day I brought in my little Sony point and shoot, but still had the same problem. Autofocus kept focusing on the background .

So today I brought in the DSLR. Fortunately the spider and it’s web was still around so I was able to (finally) get some pictures.

As I was leaving, I also saw this fine specimen of a Golden silk orbweaver/banana spider a little higher up in a tree on the other side of the sidewalk. Like the spiny orbweaver, the phone and little camera wouldn’t focus on the spider, so I got a few shots of it today.

Unfortunately when I left work, the spiny orbweaver had gone, web and all. My guess is someone wasn’t paying attention and walked into the web, sending the spider into the bushes, or hitching a ride with whoever walked into it. The banana spider was still there though.