{"id":5502,"date":"2014-09-11T06:36:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T10:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/p4td.lightshedder.com\/?p=5502"},"modified":"2014-09-11T06:58:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T10:58:25","slug":"spider-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=5502","title":{"rendered":"The spider and the dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I went out yesterday to mow the front yard, there were a dozen or more tiny, late-season, dark-legged, off-colored Meadowhawks flying low and perching often. Most likely they were female or immature male White-faced Meadowhawks, but I can not be at all certain. As I was photographing this one close in under the eves of the house, it flew up and right into a spider web. I considered freeing it, but then the spider, which had been hiding under the lower edge of the siding on the house, scuttled out and attacked. So be it. Spiders got to do what spiders got to do. And I am almost as fond of spiders as I am of dragonflies. I think this is just one of the grass spiders…a funnel weaver of some kind, though the web seemed sticky enough at least to trap the dragon…or else its\u00a0legs just got so well tangled that despite best efforts it could not free itself. An hour later the spider had worked the dragon almost completely up under the siding on the house. For scale here, the dragonfly is maybe an inch and a quarter long (3 cm) and I was shooting from about that same distance.<\/p>\n

Sony HX400V. 68mm equivalent field of view, macro. ISO 200 @ 1\/80th @ f3.5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.<\/p>\n

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