In neglecting this blog I’ve also been neglecting my related hobby of posting arachno-porn.
Time to fix this. A little.
Well, the other week down by the Taieri River we (or more correctly, that nice Scottish-Kiwi family from Auckland who we kept crossing paths with on the Rail Trail) found a pair of lovely and large water spiders (Dolomedes aquaticus, according to Forster & Forster):
Once I changed lenses I was able to get a nice close-up of the smaller, probably male, individual (though, as always, I never quite get enough depth of field):
Meanwhile, the other one had disappeared around the side of a rock under the water. It sat there and didn’t move, the trapped air around its body providing a silvery aqualung.
Given that this handsome pair were probably in the middle of some sort of courtship process when they were disturbed, I’m thinking this fully qualifies as arachno-porn.
So enough for now.
