Spiders I saw today

After attending Joseph Koh's talk on eight-legged critters, my duck has since devoted slightly more attention to seeking out these web-spinners along forested paths. And it seems that with just an ounce of notion about the habits of these creatures, a few square metres of shrub and leaf litter can yield a bewildering diversity of species.

This was the best shot I could get, considering that I had to focus in the dark while lying on my soft underbelly. The spider lives on a rather messy, shapeless web and I can't find any description in Joseph's book that matches it. So it shall remain nameless for now.

Probably Argiope versicolor, the multi-coloured St. Andrew's Cross Spider. I discovered that they drop straight down to the foliage beneath the web when disturbed.

 

Probably some species of Big-jawed spider (Tetragnathidae) with its egg case.

Again, no matching description in the book, but I suspect it could be a Cyclosa species.

Comments

[Aydin]

Actually, a comment on your RIP list. You are not actually reading all of those at once, are you?

Good Soldier Svejk, yes, one of the funniest books ever written. I will do a post about it one of these days.

I am not familiar with Capek's books at all. I have to try one.

Thanks for the list.

[budak]

I have finished some of them, but I guess for all good books, reading them is always a (lifelong) work in progress...

There are probably many latter-day Svejks out there, esp. in Iraq...

Capek comes from the same literary tradition as Hasek – bitingly ironic and perceptively sceptical. Try "Towards the Radical Centre" as a sampler, followed by Newts. The imprints from www.catbirdpress.com are highly readable.