Tiny moths with pale wings were already fluttering about the scrubbery that lines the footpath between Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and a long shore of shifty sand an hour before sunset. These early birds scattered and swung under broad leaves as clumsy feet shook the grasses and inspected the reeds for diurnal beasts – butterflies, odonates and beetles – in their final moments of daylight.
Two and a half hours later, chased by the surging tide, a return to the path saw the occupation of the wayside by countless spiders in various stages of silken dishabile. Stalks and stems served as anchors and curving beams for the tiny webs of spindly long-jawed weavers as well as the sprawling orbs of female araneids. The most common of those of a robust dame, possibly a species of Neoscona, perhaps rufofemorata, with reddish brown frontal femurs and a blue wash on the rear edge of her prosoma. The abdomen is a hairy mound of festive outlines punctured by insignificant ocelli.
Sitting in the hubs of chest-high traps, the spiders mashed prey into unrecognisable chunks of cuticular mess, while wandering males clung to nearby blades with full palps in hopeful sexpression. In size, they are only about a third smaller than their prospective mates, so unlike the minutemen of giant spinnerettes who enjoy the disregard of their wives, these suitors must brave hostile lines where their intentions are likely to be misconstrued and a touch of amorous enquiry could lead to a tapestry of unravelled desires.
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