Arachnida (Arachnids)
This page features images galleries that highlight the Araneae (Spiders) part of Arachnida (Arachnids). The first gallery includes species from three families and the second features spider webs. I photographed in France, Singapore, Seychelles, Trinidad and UK. See the Taxonomy note at the end of this page.
Spiders
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Spider Notes
Displayed images from lynx, tarantulas, and orbweavers spider families feature.
Lynx Spiders are ambush hunters with over 500 species distributed worldwide. They blend in with vegetation and flowers where they wait for prey, such as bees, to visit. They have six eyes, two up, two down and two to the side arranged as a hexagon.
Tarantulas are nocturnal ambush hunters with a tropical, subtropical and desert distribution. There are more than 850 species. They do not spin webs but may spin silk to line hiding places and sometimes build tunnel webs. I photographed the Trinidad Chevron Tarantula at night using flash.
Images of orbweavers include the small common garden spider and two large tropical spiders: the palm spider and golden orb spider. The colourful wasp spider is one of my favourites. The third-largest family is the orbweavers, with around 3000 species found throughout the world except in the cold extremes.
Spider Webs
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Spiders Web Notes
There are many types of spider webs, including funnel, orb, sheet and tangle/cob. The gallery features an example of four types. They make interesting photographic subjects, especially in misty conditions and when dew forms on the silk.
Spider Taxonomy
The Araneae (Spiders) order are part of the class Arachnida (Arachnids) placed in the phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) that probably evolved around 400 million years ago.
There are over 50,000 described species placed in over 100 families, three features in the gallery:
(1) Araneidae (Orbweavers).
(2) Oxyopidae (Lynx Spiders),
(3) Theraphosidae (Tarantulas).