Micrathena is back! I always associate these small spiders, whose webs are strung between trees and shrubs at just head level, with the beginning of the end of summer. Sure, sure we’ve got August to go, but in a couple of weeks we will have rounded the peak and headed very slowly back down the hill.

One of the charming things about these species is that they’re the very ones that woods walkers blunder into, sometimes resulting in a panicky reaction since the webs (and often the spider) ends up all over the face. I’ve learned to watch out and take a slightly different detour through another pair of trees. Often there will be *another* Micrathena spread across that space, too. Hemmed in by Micrathenas!

I see that I did photograph, but did not identify, this particular species (Micrathena gracilis, Spined Micrathena), along with its relative Micrathena sagitatta, Arrow-shaped Micrathena, last August. I had the same problems then, and on other occasions, as I had with these photographs:

Above, we have two individuals, poorly captured in natural light, and to the left, the individual at the upper left photographed by flash. These spiders are almost always found in poor lighting conditions, deep under a canopy, where camera sensitivity is low. But for this particular species there’s the problem with flash: the intricate white striping is extremely reflective (left). And that image was taken with exposure during flash turned way down. The consequence is that either exposure times must be longer than my jitter can accomodate, or depth of field must suffer. (Or both, as you can tell.) I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence but these two spiders, both well aware of my presence, always kept their prickly abdomens facing toward me, with the rest of the body on the other side. The elaborated tubercles that form the “spines” present an unappetizing aspect - I certainly was not inclined toward a snack, so you see that they work.

Hilton Pond, not unsurprisingly, has a nice article on Micrathena, and the spiny micrathena page at Bugguide is here.