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Found this blighter on the back door this afternoon. Can anyone identify him/her. Used 32mm Kenko extention tube behind a Nikkor 60mm Micro to get the closeup.

The #2 & #3 shots are for ID purposes only.

Hey Steve
Very cool shots - this is a net casting spider - of the family Deinopidae... but I'm unsure of the species. This is a male - you can tell by looking at the boxing glove-like pedipalps - the things that are folded under in the first shot, and look like they've got balls on the end. This is where the sperm is stored, and is used to insemminate the female spider.

They are ambush predators - you can tell by the huge pair of front eyes - they sit and wait for insects to pass by, and usually have a type of
'net' spun from spider silk stretched between the front legs. When their prey passes, they cast the net, and catch the prey, much like we use a fishing net - and then presto - dinner

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... DcountryAU

not my shot (found it on the web) but this is a spider with the net :

Great shots Steve. I thought you'd have had enough wildlife after your African adventure but here you go and find a strange beastie in your own backyard!

Sorry everyone - don't know why my post isn't wrapping the text

You broke it Rel!

Great shots Steve. 1st is brilliant

that is so wicked!

Scary and brilliant - love it Steve, well done!

60mm?.... Geez! I would have use a 80-400 + TC2!!!

Technically awsome, hate the subject though..........

Fantastic!! I'm so mesmerised that I'm forgetting to be scared! The second one is brilliant. Alien-like.

That said, if that thing was on MY back door I would have grabbed my tennis racket, left by the front door, and taken some shots of it with my 300mm with 2x multiplier at a distance of, oh 50metres. Then I would have gone to the neighbours to borrow some alcohol and lobbed molotov cocktails at it until it went away, fire damage be damned.

(Oh, who am I kidding? I would have sold the house)

I very nearly jumped off my chair when I opened your post. The screen was lucky not to be hit with the staff attitude adjustment tool (aka baseball bat) here in the office.

Number #1 is cool to look at but #2 fills me with dread. That thing creeping across the floor at home would have seen me hanging from the roof beams. Luckily I have a wife that is ok with spiders to remove it, otherwise I'm with BT*ist . Splat

Nice macro work can't say that about the subject

/M.

Steve, nice shots mate!

Just one thing, you can keep your frickin strange alien spiders in Qld! I'd have a fit if that fell on me!

Thanks for all of the kind words.

The thing actually looked pretty tame, I picked it up VERY gently with my bare hands and placed it on a piece of paper to get the shots. Looks much nastier in macro!

I think that I messed up with this one though When I took the first couple of shots of him I noticed all of this cobweb stuff around his front legs so I removed it very carefully and what I couldn't get off I cloned out in PS.

DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH

I guess that was his net which he was waiting to throw at me.

Thanks for the ID Rel. We have LOTS of weird spiders here at the moment I think I might try and capture a few more before I break into the Pidgeons Pest Control bulk store.

Nice photos mate & thanks for the warning - I would've fallen off my chair without it. Or screamed The DOF in the 2nd makes it look huge

Great detail in that first shot, looks like he's posing!

holy crap, i'm glad i live this side of the country.

I'm taking a can of mortein to bed with me now.