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Common Hentz Jumper

I saw 4 Hentz Jumpers (Hentzia palmarum I believe) yesterday morning. This was the only one within range. All photos taken with my Canon 5d Mark 2, Canon mp-e 65, and the Canon mt-24ex flash.

Tags: 5d mark II, hentz jumper, Hentzia palmarum, jumping spider, macro, mp-e 65, mt-24 ex, spider

I saw this female Salticid relaxing on top of a flower the other day. She was lethargic, and had no concern about me or the flying critters all around her. Occasionally she would re-position herself, but other than that she barely moved in the 30 minutes I watched her. Her abdomen was quite large, my guess is she was pregnant.

All photographs taken with my Canon 5d Mark 2, Canon mp-e 65, and Canon mt-24ex flash.

Crop of above photo

Tags: 5d mark II, Chesapeake, jumping spider, macro, mp-e 65, mt-24 ex, spider

Peucetia viridans, Fat and Happy!

I love this species of spider, Peucetia viridans, aka the Green Lynx Spider. Definitely my favorite non-jumping spider of all the other types I have seen. This one in particular was found at the Chesapeake Arboretum, and she was easily the largest Green Lynx, if not the largest spider I’ve seen in person. I have seen other green lynxes before, but never one so fat. Maybe she is pregnant? She wasn’t concerned with me at all, I had plenty of time to switch lenses and come back for more. She seemed quite content with life.

All photos were taken with my Canon 5d Mark 2. The first few were taken with my Canon mpe-65 macro lens with the mt-24 ex twin flashes. The last three were taken with the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, natural light.

Here she is next to my finger, just to give a sense of scale. The last digit on that finger is just over one inch in length. She was so big!

Tags: 24-70mm f/2.8, 5d mark II, green lynx spider, mp-e 65, mt-24 ex, Peucetia viridans, spider

Two little spiders

The weather has been rather crappy lately, so I’ll post some of my backlog. Here are two spiders I found in Chesapeake back in early July. The first is a Magnolia Green Jumper ( Lyssomanes viridis) I believe. The second is unidentified.

Tags: 5d mark II, Chesapeake, jumping spider, Lyssomanes viridis, macro, mp-e 65, mt-24 ex

Female Paraphidippus aurantius

Another short series from July 4th. It was a great day of photography for me, this is one of the four adults I saw on one plant. I believe this is a Female Paraphidippus aurantius, who was purposely ignoring the Male Paraphidippus aurantius in the previous blog post.

All photos taken with a Canon 5d Mark II, Canon mp-e 65mm lens, and a Canon mt-24 ex twin flash light with custom flash diffusers. Click any photo for a larger version.