Category: Bugs

Wife spotted this spider sitting on the car’s side view mirror. I wonder if he wanted to go for some take-out.

The lovebugs seem to be especially abundant this summer. I suspect it has something to do with all the rain we’ve been getting this year.

I was putting up the antenna this morning for the Tennessee QSO party and there were hundreds of them swarming around the side of the house.

All those small black specks on the house are bugs. They seemed to find the antenna mast a good spot to rest.

Spotted this neat looking Luna moth on the door last night. Haven’t seen too many of them around here before.

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.

Big huge honkin’ spider sitting on the screen inside the back porch last night