Here’s a follow up on the spider that I wrote about on Halloween. Because she’s in plain view just outside our kitchen window, she’s basically become a pet (of sorts). The family checks up on her each evening, and because she seems to keep getting bigger and bigger, we’ve named her “Big Bertha.”

I had a hard time getting these photos. The first night I tried to get photos of her, I disturbed her when I tried to put two tripods near her. By the time I was ready to start taking photos, she was rolled up into a ball, and just wouldn’t cooperate with the shoot. I tried blowing gently on her to see if she would strike a pose for me. However instead of posing for the camera, she just bolted up into the bushes. I figured that was it for the night’s shoot, so I pulled my tripods and equipment out of the bushes and headed back to my office. Then about an hour later, she was back out on her web! I brought all of the equipment back outside to try again, and there she was, rolled up in a ball again! Another puff of gentle air, and poof—back to the bushes she went!

I really wanted to get some nice photos of Big Bertha, so the next day I setup my tripods during the day while she was still hiding in the bushes. Later that evening when she was back out on her web, I successfully connected my camera to one tripod, and my flash unit to the other tripod without disturbing her. The rest of the photo shoot went great—she barely budged the entire time. In fact, I almost got the feeling she was posing for me!
From what I can tell, Big Birtha is Spotted Orbweaver, aka. Neoscona crucifera. For those that are interested, I found some detailed information about this species on spiders.us.
The photos were captured using the following equipment:

• Nikon D700
• 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D AF ED Micro Zoom Nikkor
• Nikon No. 5T Close-up Attachment Lens