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Had one very successful day with Mark and Ian hunting for bugs down at the Hampton Lodge Campground in Coinjock, NC. We were there for the East Coast Star Party, which keeps us busy during the nights, but leaves us to our own entertainment while the sun is up. Mark and I have a good history of finding interesting critters, specifically jumping spiders. This year they were in full swing.

All photos were taken with my Canon 5d Mark II, Canom mp-e 65mm f/2.8 lens, and the mt-24ex twin flashes, heavily diffused. Click any photo for a larger version. For use rights or any questions, please email keegan at keeganm dot com.

Since I had such a great time and found quite a few interesting things, I’ll be commenting throughout the post. Starting with this one. This is a female Salticid of some sort, not sure of the species exactly. She was incredibly shy, it took 20 minutes of patiently waiting to snap this photo. Every time I moved, she would duck back in her little house. I ended up setting my tripod right in front of it, setting the focus, and using a remote trigger to capture this photo.

We found one tree in particular which was covered in life. Ants, flies, spiders, critters everywhere. One unique event was happening, something I have never seen before. I have seen jumping spiders catch and eat ants, but never the opposite. A large group of ants were going in and out of a hole in this tree, many carrying food. This one was carrying a still alive jumping spider.

This is not a crop

Hentz jumper

This photo below is of a ladybug larva (black thing on the right) eating another insect. I’ve seen ladybug larvae plenty of times, but never with prey.