Mating fishing spiders!
Location: Northwestern Ontario, Canada
March 15, 2012 9:14 am
Hello! I’m pretty certain these are fishing spiders. I took these pictures on my dock at camp a couple of summers ago. I got to watch the entire process from beginning to end. Really fascinating! Just thought you lovely folks might appreciate these! 🙂
Signature: Valerie
Valerie,
WOW, these are the most sensual and gorgeous photos of mating Spiders we have ever seen. We may have, somewhere buried in our Bug Love archives, several mating insect photos that rival them. This must have been amazing to watch. Please, Please, Please Valerie, tell us “What was it like?”.
Can we just say WOW again? There are so many legs and appendages including pedipalps in these photos it is difficult to determine exactly what is going on. We don’t know if there are many photos in the world of mating Fishing Spiders in the genus Dolomedes in the world, but these have to be among the best. Should we ever make a Bug Love calendar, at least one or two of them have to be included.
Daniel
P.S. We just received, to a letter we posted inquiring if a child starting an insect collection might be considered Unnecessary Carnage, a comment extolling the virtues of documenting insects not by a collection but by digital photos. This is a perfect example of how mounted or preserved specimens are paled by a comparison to action photos.
