This is such a great picture that I couldn't look at it, since I don't really like spiders - I felt badly because I wanted to vote for it, but it is a really ugly looking spider in close up But I really do love the details!

gg5 said:This is such a great picture that I couldn't look at it, since I don't really like spiders - I felt badly because I wanted to vote for it, but it is a really ugly looking spider in close up But I really do love the details!

I thought it was rather cute myself, but I'm pretty sure spiders are an... acquired taste.
Anyway, thank you for overcoming your fears and having a look

I too have a fear of spiders but find them fascinating and quite beautiful.
This photo received my vote
You rarely see the silken thread on a crab spider.

Thank you very much Cinda and that is very observant of you. You are so correct about the silk thread and not that many people are aware of that.

For those that didn't know this already, Crab Spiders don't use a net to capture their prey, rather they just sit patiently on top of a flower or similar, waiting patiently for a pray to come close enough and then bang shuts the trap, dinnertime . They use silk threads only to move around. Sometimes the small ones use them for a phenomena called ballooning, where they release a thread and let the wind carry them, sometimes over large distances. In this case the spider perhaps thought that I was a bit too inquisitive with my camera and tried to escape

I surely hadn't looked that closely at the photo until now fascinating!! I thought the green thing was a twig or something. Thanks for this info
And totally agree I do give spiders respect at a safe distance.
I trap them when inside and release I used to kill them as a child, no longer, I appreciate them for their place in nature

A twig? No wonder you thought it looked scary, how gigantic did you think this spider was, Greg???? A spider that big would make ME run to mama for protection and I'm forty years old, so that would be really embarrassing, both for me and my mother .

In a picture you totally cannot tell!!!
And luckily I'd just swallowed my drink of water before reading your post cause that had me really laughing out loud, and I'm at a restaurant, would NOT have been pretty!!!

Here in Seattle by the end of summer we get thousands of garden spiders, well fed and happy, in their large webs, just in time for Halloween, usually about an inch or larger not counting leg span... Truly scary
New phone so have to wait until I get to my computer to locate a pic

This is all too hilarious!
Love your spiders William! The one on the daffodil is my unquestioned favorite --AbsolutelyAmazing!!!

Here is the post where I should have tagged your name when I was babbling about your incredible photos

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

you are cordially invited to post all the spooky bugs you want in this thread

The thread "Beefriends(tm) and other Garden Guests - threeeeeeeee!!" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

for my viewing pleasure!

Excellent photo William, I see quite a few periodically in my garden. They do seem quite stealthy.

dirtdorphins and jmorth, glad you enjoyed the image .

And thank you dirt also for the invitation. I don't take as many insect or spider photos as I used to, but I'll be looking into my archives to see if I can find something suitable.