Dairy Farm
Central, Singapore
February 2013
It was a spiderful day for Merlion Wayfarer at Dairy Farm today! She found a whole collection of spiders and spiderlings in just one short 1.5 hour visit...
- Four different Argiope Versicolor (Multi-Coloured St Andrew's Cross Spiders) - two males and the pair...
This female had just assassinated her mate (a male), devoured his body, beheaded him and left his cephalothorax attached to the web. This is one ferocious female that you wouldn't want to antagonize!
- A lace thread but no web or spider to be found...
- Some other orb-weavers...
- A hungry Neoscona Rufofemorata (Brown-Legged Spider) preparing a ladybird for its lunch...
- Two very photogenic Opadometa Fastigata (Pear-Shaped Leucauge) spiders. It is good that both the spiders and their webs are within ideal photographic range. And oh my, look at how wickedly red its eyes are!
- Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of orb-web spiderlings were splayed on a web between twigs of a bush...
- This ground hunter Storena Cinctipes (Spotted Ground Spider) was spotted halfway up a bush. It must have used the elevator!
- Today's jumpers made for photogenic subjects - This Telamonia Dimidiata (Two-Striped Telamonia) was still a juvenile with bits of fluorescence visible on a closer look. And look at how she can turn her head almost 45 degrees!
- Merlion Wayfarer had not seen a jumper like this little one before. It is probably a juvenile which has not yet attained its full colours. Despite its tiny size (smaller than a fingernail), it is a fast-mover with lots of curiosity!
- Ever wondered how the comic artists get inspiration for how to animate Spiderman's movements? This Phintella Versicolor (Multi-Coloured Phintella) will give one a good gauge. As he is still a juvenile, the patterns on its back are still immature.
- This male Viciria Praemandibularis (Wide-Jawed Viciria) Spider looks really nasty. But in actual fact, his huge "claws" make him less agile than the other jumpers in this encounter...
- This Tetragnathidae (Big-Jawed Spider) was a bit too far away for Merlion Wayfarer to take a good shot. So here's a blurry one!
- Gasteracantha (Spiny Spiders) are nice finds in this area. As usual, quite a few were spotted. What was good this round was that there were the really tiny red ones - smaller than the "0" in the Singapore 10-cent coin...
- The surprising find about today's Gasteracantha Hasseltii (Hasselt's Spiny Spider) is that it actually can produce gold threads on its web!
There are of course, the "non-spider" finds from today:
- A huge tree-climbing millipede that was just inches above the spiderlings...
- Some foam eggs...
- A pooping locust (with the poop censored!)...
- A huge grasshopper with an index finger beside it for comparison...
- Beetles who are not at all shy...
- An elegant translucent beauty...
