Spiders, no flies on them!

Most of my life I have had a fear of Spiders that stems from an incident at Primary School back in the 80's. I had run into the cloak room and not one, but two big typical House Spiders ran out from my left leg. Previous to this I could be seen amongst all types of bugs and beasties in the garden and elsewhere. Then that all changed in 2012 when I discovered someone on flickr who does Jumping Spiders very close up. He was mentioned in my Fly blog too. So my understanding of the Arachnids and Arthropods (Jumping Spiders) changed

Having spent 12 years working within the wooden animal housing industry I would regularly be spooked by all kinds of spiders, most commonly the House Spider. Many very big too. So to have a complete turn around in my perception of them shows how inspiring and thankful I am of this photographers work. I do however still fear any that resemble the Black Widow in shape, they to me look just plain evil!

So having done flies and the odd bug here and there I was on a mission to capture Jumping Spiders for myself. Known also as Zebra Spiders, they are so comical in their movement and full of intrigue when faced with a giant lens in front of them. Some run in fear while others are bemused by what greets them. They track your every move in a way that is very robotic. They normally inhabit walls of houses, garden shed and wooden fencing around fields.  The next four images are the best I have captured of them...

Jumping Spiders done to a degree I wanted to capture other species. One that is very timid despite its name is the Wolf Spider. Readily accessible in the garden and with a lot of perseverance I managed to capture some...

I call this one Cyclops

I am amazed at how opaque the legs are in them and how many eyes they have too. The middle one is a male too with its longer boxing glove arms. Most recently the next two images are from Kings Wood, Challock just 5 minutes drive from me. I am not sure if both are males or both genders as the second image has a sack attached with Spiderlings in I believe?

Late Summer/ early Autumn last year at my girlfriends, her garden was home to the typical Garden Spider. Varied in size and randomly home to the pretty aggressive males their webs would be seen spanning gaps between the shrubs, Holly and other tall plants. Prime areas of unwitting flies to move through. The biggest seen with legs spanned out was the diameter of a 50p coin. 

About life-size in this photo

Feasting on a Fly

This last image is very recent and taken with the new addition of a LED Ring Flash. In reality it is only I would say 10mm long so thus appears here 3 times bigger! The light really helps bring out the detail, given the location was in complete shade from the shed.

The next spider was captured in 2013 and while I was out walking on the outskirts of my village. Well camouflaged in Lime Green colours and in prime ambush position amongst the hedgerow. This also has that distinct large Abdomen akin to those of nightmares, but more friendly luckily.

Known as Araniella Cucurbitina

Another whose colouring (or rather lack of) provides perfect camouflage for its niche way of hunting. Aptly named the White Death Spider it sits in wait on Cow Parsley along country lanes. The unassuming victim caught out by the distraction of feeding on the Pollen. The spider leaps from nowhere and relentlessly immobilises its prey.  As evident below, it really hides itself well amongst the small white flowers of the plant and lives up to its name too.

White Death Spider. Image stacked from two images.

The following ?????? was taken on a public footpaths swing gate post in a nearby field to my home. Common sights for those that look for them, they make spots like this home. Laying flat in general with legs splayed out. They have a very prehistoric look to them. As if fossilised and brought back to life millions of years later. The patterning on the "disc" of its head has a great velvety texture carried over onto the rear abdomen too. The eyes protrude from the disc giving a UFO feel also.

 Finally is a very atmospheric photo of a very small "Money" type spider. It was running along the tables edge and with the effect of the macro set-up provides an evocative and creative image.  The peach background enhances the dark brown exoskeleton of this Arachnid, also complimented by the grey/green tables edging. Even being so small I have been able to enlarge it to a degree that even the minutest of hairs on its legs are visible. So this image concludes my new discovery and bravery of capturing these 8 legged creatures.

All of a Buzz

I have always had a deep affinity with the Bee. It goes about its business from flower to flower collecting valuable Pollen. It has been well documented by the press that they are under threat from parasitic attack and measures have been taken to prevent extinction. If they go then as said elsewhere our food source enters a danger zone too. 

On first appearance they are small bundles of furry insect, barred in yellow orange stripes generally. The big Bumble Queens first appear flying low and entering open doors or windows to any building looking for that perfect hole leading to a cavity, upon which for her to develop her colony. Often the Honey Bee is misidentified as the most irritating of insects: The Wasp. It is assumed that the yellow and black stripes mean Wasp and not the humble Bee to the untrained unassuming eye. 

This blog contains those few Bees that I have managed to photograph so far. Two of these have both utilised a Tit box and Insect box to set up a colony. The first, the Tree Bumblebee used the hexagonal tit box on the side of our shed facing south. It would get the Sun on it from around 10am until 4pm in the summer months. It was small in Bee numbers, with I would say somewhere between 20-30 Bees. The previous 2 years a Bluetit family had used the box but for some reason, were not to return this particular summer of 2013. Still full of Moss and other prime nest materials (as seen below), it was pretty much a ready made home for the Bumblebees. 

In this photo one worker is using his wings to fan cool air inside the box on what was a very hot day in June 2013. At some points 3 would line the hole doing this. They stayed for only 3 months I recall and were gone. They have not returned in 2014 and this year will hopefully see them make a return.

The next and current residents in the garden to utilise a man made home are Mason Bees. I had placed a ready made box with Cane cut to short lengths in the top half and other holes for Lacewing or Butterflies in the lower half. Then two weeks ago while out in the garden I spotted a strange Bee searching around the shed for suitable holes for which to reside. It was metallic green at the top and its abdomen was gold in colour with yellow hairs within it. A few appeared and rested in the Sun on leaves to. Then I spotted they were entering the Bee box. Just below and to the left were two of different size and appeared to me to be two different species. I wanted to capture these and carefully moved them to daylight as they were pre occupied with each other. 

The brown liquid is either just fertilised eggs or the males sperm

The second pair on another day

After the initial pair, two days later a second pair were spotted mating on the leaves of a plant below. This gave me the chance to capture them in a natural location and not the table. The last photo is my personal favourite as it really captures the true colour of the Mason Bee. It was taken further along the garden resting on the planks that form the raised bed. 

The next Bee which is a Honey Bee of some sorts, was actually the first Bee I photographed and was resting in the evening Sun. 

The pale yellow colouring was a first spot for me at the time. It is slightly smaller than the traditional Honey Bee so commonly seen. It looks so delicate and was compliant to me photographing it. 

The latest and final Bee was taken on the same day as the Mason Bees and was up on the Blossom of the Cherry Tree in the garden. Still a strand of Honey Bee I believe and this time was stunning deep orange colouration. What is impressive in this photo is how armour plated it looks on its abdomen. You can really see each plate/layer and how they slide over each other. This was very hard to take as I was looking just above head height and impressed any were sharp or usable. There were other Bee varieties on the Cherry Tree but they were so high up and inaccessible. At first I thought some were of Wasp subspecies or Wasp-fly type but upon research they were in fact Nomad Bees. One in particular had beautiful green compound eyes. I just wish I could have captured them too. Some were skirting the raised bed but were too timid with my presence. One day, just one day, I will get to capture their stunning detail.

Well the above was to be the final Bee in this blog, but as luck would have it after initially writing this, I ventured into the garden today and spotted in a Tit box that Tree Bumblebee's have in fact returned to my delight. I had initially gone into the garden to do 2 Bumblebee flower pot nests as seen on Springwatch's S.O.S article on them. And also to help put up an insect tower my father has just finished making. The following pics are from today's discovery and the nest examples.  

Tree Bumblebee's building up mud around the entrance

First halfway along the right hand side fence in the raised flower bed between the Mason and Tree Bee's

Second placed on the opposite side of the garden at the bottom left corner

Placed 6ft to the right of the Mason Bee nest

The future of the Bumblebee has had a big helping hand today and time will tell if they are to become inhabited.

Fly Macro

In 2013 not long after the Barn Owl appearances, I discovered a photographer on a popular social photography website. His main interest lies in portraits, very close-up, of Jumping Spiders and a few other insects in America. He really inspired me into trying out Super-close Macro as it is called. He also happened to use the same brand of camera as me too. After viewing a video he had made on the equipment required, I could see it was really cheap to buy the necessary kit for this type of photography. In fact £7-15 for what are called extension tubes and about £40-50 for the old lenses.

After eventually finding the 28mm lens I needed at a non  extortionate price and being given the extension tubes as a Birthday gift. I was ready to enter into the genre of Super-close Macro. At first it was very hard and I could not see anything. This was in fact due to me being too far away from the subject I soon discovered. To actually capture the detail up close and personal, it turned out I only had to have a distance of around 50mm from the glass to the subject. This was quite unnerving at first, discovering detail suddenly, that was like that of Horror film monsters. I would jump on many occasions when the fly or other insect would appear very large in the viewfinder!

First successful shot

The above image is one of the first attempts out in the field that was fairly successful. It does lack sharpness in the eye, however captures all the fine hairs on the fly that I had no idea they had. The hardest part I found out in this genre is a very small depth of field. The area where there is focus is only about 5mm. This along with my unsteady hand and the other factors of the fly moving along with a slight breeze moving the leaves proved a steep learning curve. To potentially get an image good enough you really have to persevere and use the continuous shooting mode on the camera. 

Anthomyia procellarus

A couple of days later while out in the garden, I saw several of the above fly variety sunning themselves. They are only an average of 7-10mm long and some, as it turned out were very compliant to be photographed. The above fly was very tame in fact and this allowed me to start refining my technique. After acquiring an Insect pocket book guide (partly to find out what insects would bite!) I found out this is called the "Anthomyia procellaris". I was struck to how different by design this fly is to the first one taken just 2 days earlier. The Leopard like black spots are really striking and make the fly really stand out. For an insect that in so many ways represents disease to be so patterned, fuelled my enthusiasm even further to discover what other flies would look like. I managed to get another one of these at another location some weeks later and this one being much larger than the first. Around 15mm in length.

With spring now in mid flow, fly activity was numerous. With the days now longer  and lighter evenings every opportunity I would have, I would patrol the garden and chase down flies that were of a new species. Some had escaped me totally and would never let me close to them. Built in self preservation evident in these instances! Eventually some would not be spooked and the third I was able to capture is the above one. One common theme with all 3 is that they all have grey bodies and Bright red eyes (Although not so evident in the spotted fly above). This is also around 7mm in length and known just as a "Common Fly" like the first. The yellow triangular body part stands out too as a distinctive detail. The next fly was also taken on the same day. Again with grey colouring but this time having a yellow ochre rear abdomen. The shape of the eye is also different to the previous flies in that they are much longer and touch in the middle on top of the head.

Two days later my next fly was captured. This is much smaller than before and only 4mm long. Grey body yet again but with striking Ochre coloured legs. The small depth of field is really apparent in this photo too.

Another new discovery 11 days later is below. Big eyes feature again as does the grey. 

Finally a month later I found a group of flies that were not grey. They were down in a damp area where my Koi pond filter is. This area is damp most of the time, not from leaking water but as it is in shade from the house and fence constantly. They are very small and skittish, but with dedication worth the try. Stunning metallic green and gold covers them all over, including the compound eyes. These are by far my favourite species of fly. They look armour plated and have the friendliest of faces compared to the others. They have yet to return to the garden though after this time, which is a shame as I would like to really work on getting better representations of them.  

 

4mm in length! yes the next fly I photographed was only 4mm long. I first captured it on a white post feeding on something on it. Then while walking the dogs on Wye downs I got it again in a more pleasing setting. It is classified in the "Family Grassflies" and Latin name of "Thaumatomyia" and has taken on the colour scheme of a Wasp to give it a warning to potential predators.

This shows how much magnification I can get with the kit

Small Grassfly

The next is not much bigger and for the first time has a completely different stance and form to those preceding it. More aggressive in nature it actually is predatory on other flies. It also has a metallic covering in gold with red and green tinting in the compound eyes. It could be from the Mosquito family but I cannot confirm this either way.

Cannibal

The typical Common House Fly eventually became available to photograph. This particular fly being very calm in nature and allowed me for the first time to really capture the detail of Compound eyes of insects. The number of individual lenses that make up just one eye is staggering. The face also has a completely new design to others with the jaw like structure on the nose area. 

Look into my eyes...

The Horse Fly, big, bold and with a nasty bite too if you are unfortunate! This particular one was during my lunch break at work last May 2014. I worked in the countryside and with all that is normally found on land with stables, ponds and Nettles. It is a natural proving ground for all forms of wildlife and has provided many subjects for my work.

The Horse Fly

The last fly up until now was taken in July 2014 in my girlfriends garden. Being a town garden and near to a main river has created another diverse habitat for insects. It first struck me how different all of the insects were in her garden compared to that in my own and works countryside gardens. In one area alone there was over 100 Ladybird Lavae in all states of transformation. This metallic green fly was found on grass stalks sunning itself. It took me several attempts to get this shot, but patience paid off, as with all the other photos in this blog.