Cellar Spider

STM

Senior Member
This gorgeous little fella (gal I guess, I am assuming it was a female) was shot with the D850, PB-6 Bellows and
50mm f/1.4
AIS Nikkor with 215mm of bellows extension, giving a magnification ratio of 3.3:1 on the sensor. ISO 64 @ f/11 Illuminated by a single strobe in a Softbox directly overhead. She is perched on a snipped off a branch of the bush from outside the apartment. And yes, she is deceased, you didn't think I could get a spider to sit still for that long did you?
:)

From fangs to tail she is 8mm long, they have extremely long legs, the longest of which was about 50mm.

The final image is composed of 12 images photo stacked in PS.

Cellar Spider.jpg
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
I think that's a male spider. Notice how the tips of the pedipalps are swollen? When a male spider is ready to mate, he ejaculates on the ground, then picks the sperm up in his pedipalps, causing them to swell up like that. On hooking up with a suitable lady spider, he uses his pedipalps to transfer the sperm to her.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
I think that's a male spider. Notice how the tips of the pedipalps are swollen? When a male spider is ready to mate, he ejaculates on the ground, then picks the sperm up in his pedipalps, causing them to swell up like that. On hooking up with a suitable lady spider, he uses his pedipalps to transfer the sperm to her.

Are you an entomologist, Bob? That was very interesting. Amazing to see the various reproductive strategies that different species have evolved over millions of years.
 

STM

Senior Member
I think that's a male spider. Notice how the tips of the pedipalps are swollen? When a male spider is ready to mate, he ejaculates on the ground, then picks the sperm up in his pedipalps, causing them to swell up like that. On hooking up with a suitable lady spider, he uses his pedipalps to transfer the sperm to her.

I am not so sure, this one was larger than an average male and it was solitary in its web,

This is a photo of a male I found on the web and it's pedipalps look very different

cellar spider male.jpg
 
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