Máistir Nádúraí: Cool Jumping Spider

8.04.2008

Cool Jumping Spider

I just love the Salticidae (Jumping Spiders). Whenever one manages to find its way inside our house and is discovered, I'll carefully capture it for macro photography. Yesterday I found this awesome specimen of what I believe to be a male Platycryptus undatus, though I'm not 100% sure on my identification. Shall we go over the field marks? Are any readers an arachnid expert? For photographing him, I setup a little studio on a piece of white paper beneath a fluorescent light. At first he wasn't very cooperative and kept jumping onto the camera lens. Though rather menacing in close-up photographs, this spider is only around 12mm long.

Bio:

Mike McDowell has been documenting southern Wisconsin’s flora and fauna since 1987 and began leading field trips in 2002. Prolific at Pheasant Branch Conservancy, other highlighted natural areas include Pope Farm Conservancy, Spring Green Preserve, and the Baraboo Hills. His nature photography has appeared in various publications, newspapers, magazines and was even featured on a Wisconsin Endangered Resources license plate, a Capital Brewery beer label, and a National Geographic publication. He began journaling nature observations on this blog in 2005. He's the recipient of the 2012 Bronze Passenger Pigeon Award from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in their local communities or state to promote the field of ornithology. He was a finalist in Swarovski’s Digiscoper of the Year photography contest several times. His other interests include insect macro-photography (especially tiger beetles, treehoppers, and robber flies), fossil collecting, amateur astronomy, botany, natural history, and marksmanship with long-range firearms. Once a gigging musician, collecting Fender Stratocasters is a recently revived interest—most prized being a 1957 Vintage Custom 'Mary Kaye' White Blonde. A former IT Professional, he's spent the last 24 years employed in the sport optics industry and has more binoculars than you.