Category: Insects & Spiders

KEEP OUT!

Webbing covers the entrance hole to the nest of an Arizona blond tarntula on September 16, 2023. Originals: _Z728135.NEF to _Z728230.NEF

One of the tarantulas living in our backyard covers its hole before sunrise with a patchwork of webbing, removing it come nightfall when it emerges to wait for prey to walk by. I hear crickets in our front yard and elsewhere in the neighborhood but not in our backyard for some strange reason. While many spiders spin webs to catch prey this is more like a ‘No Solicitors’ or ‘No Vacancy’ sign. A larger tarantula living 12 feet away doesn’t cover its entrance hole however.

I’m not the only one taking a break for the fall and winter, they have both sealed their entrances with dirt and rocks as they tuck in for the cooler months, the larger one a couple of weeks ago and this one last night. Enjoy your long rest, see you in the spring.

Truth Coming Out of Her Well

One of the tarantulas living in our backyard sits outside its nest at night on September 17, 2023. Original: _RAC7894.ARW

Whenever I see the tarantulas living in our backyard I’m reminded of the painting “Truth Coming Out of Her Well” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, as contrary to how they are often portrayed on screen they just come out at night and sit beside their holes and wait for prey to walk past. I decided to try to photograph the one that’s easiest to see, in the darkness it required a 15 second exposure at ISO 3200. I left the exposure dark to emphasize this is a night shot of a nocturnal predator, but light enough that you get a feel of the beauty of what I see when I take Bear out at night and catch a glimpse of one of them at the diffuse edges of the flashlight’s beam.

The Bird & The Bee

Diffuse light from the rising sun falls on a white-winged dove and a bee sitting on top of saguaro flowers on the Latigo Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 10, 2023. Original: _RAC6962.ARW

Diffuse light from the rising sun falls on a white-winged dove and a bee and the very tops of the saguaro flowers, but not yet on the ripening fruit or the saguaro below. One of a seemingly infinite set of pictures as I play with light arriving or departing the desert, taken on a rare pre-sunrise hike without Bear a couple of months ago.

In The Interests of Human/Spider Relations

A side view of a young tarantula with its abdomen raised on the Latigo Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 24, 2021. Original: _RAC9976.arw

Last Sunday evening I headed out for a quick hike, while I brought my camera I really just wanted to get out into the desert for a little while. Late in the day as I started the hike back towards where my wife was picking me up, I saw a small black form in the middle of the trail ahead of me. As I approached it looked to my still-learning eyes like a tarantula, only shrunk in size 3 or 4 times. I was aware the adult males might be on the move in the fall but instead of fitting in the palm of my hand this one would have fit on my watch face.

I took a few quick pictures but wanted to encourage it to move to a safer spot, this trail is popular with cyclists and trail runners, so I tapped the ground behind it with my feet. Their eyesight is even worse than mine but they’re very sensitive to vibrations so I expected it to scurry up the side of the trail to more hospitable terrain, but while I could get it to move further out of harm’s way eventually it just stopped in the trail and raised its abdomen. Even as a neophyte I know that’s a sign of an unhappy spider.

I checked where the tread marks were and felt it had moved enough to be safe from the line the cyclists typically took and, tapping my toes having exhausted my ideas about how to get a tarantula to move, I continued on my way. A cyclist passed me several minutes later so I decided to backtrack to the little thing, though I really wasn’t in the mood to see a squished spider I was hoping for the best.

Thankfully when I arrived I saw it had fully moved up to the edge of the trail. In the interests of human/spider relations I avoided saying “I told you so” and was just happy it was in a safer place and pointed away from the trail. I took a few more pictures since it was so relaxed and continued towards the trailhead.

An overhead view of a young tarantula on the Latigo Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 24, 2021. Original: _RAC0051.arw

Snout Slurp

An Americna snout eats from a lantana fruit in our backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona on September 5, 2021. Original: _RAC8744.arw

An American snout enjoys the remains of lantana fruit in our backyard. After the monsoons this summer and fall when the flowers were in full bloom I’d close my mouth as I walked past this bush to make sure I didn’t accidentally inhale a butterfly from the mob that flittered about. We recently had landscapers dig up the many bougainvillea plants in the backyard and a couple of palms that had died or were struggling, initially I was unsure on whether to keep the lantana but after seeing how the butterflies loved it I decided to keep them.

A Size Comparison

A joking size comparison of a black witch moth to a blue whale with the size of the moth greatly exaggerated

Since it can be difficult to get a sense of how big the black witch is from pictures, I placed it at scale next to a blue whale. So not as big as the biggest animal to have ever lived, but still pretty big.

(Whale drawing is from Kurzon)