| 09/14/04 | The story begins on a sunny afternoon in September. |
| 09/14/04 | A face only a mother could love...Or an arachnologist. |
| 09/14/04 | Up close and personal with the star of the show. |
| 10/11/04 | Less than a month later, and she's put on some weight. Guess it's true, it's all about location, location, location. |
| 10/14/04 | The one month mark. She's still getting a good amount of food. |
| 10/21/04 | There was a rain storm last night. She's now in the process of rebuilding her web. |
| 10/21/04 | What's all that flashing? Better get ready just in case. I think she's tired of me taking pictures. |
| 10/21/04 | She's almost done. I bet she'd love it if I would just go away. |
| 10/21/04 | I managed to get a nice close up of her face. |
| 11/03/04 | It's November, and the good photo ops are getting hard to come by. |
| 11/03/04 | Is it just me, or does her abdomen appear to be a little off center? |
| 11/03/04 | An attempt to get a good shot of her abdomen. |
| 11/10/04 | This was a short shooting session. She became irritated after just one shot and went to her hiding place. I got a few shots just before she went into hiding. |
| 12/13/04 | Its been over a month since I was able to get a good shot in. Its been a combination of bad weather and malfunctioning camera equipment. I am pleased that neither was serious. |
| 12/14/04 | She knows it's me when I show up. She always prepares herself to make a dash for it. |
| 12/14/04 | I usually start off from a distance and try and get her used to my presence. |
| 12/14/04 | This time it didn't quite work out as I had hoped. She became weary of my presence and took off, albeit slowly. I really wanted to get some good daytime shots, because they're frequently out at night instead. |
| 12/14/04 | I was feeling kind of bad for taking so many pictures, so I decided to find her a meal as an attempt to make amends. |
| 12/14/04 | She didn't seem to have any issues with a free meal. |
| 12/14/04 | After watching her wrap up this leaf mimic, I'm glad I got my finger out before she got there. While I understand these spiders aren't dangerous, a spider bite is no fun. |
| 12/14/04 | Give it a good amount of venom to start the digestive process. |
| 12/14/04 | Hmmm, what to do, what to do. |
| 12/14/04 | Make sure the food is secure. |
| 12/14/04 | Ahhh, a nice relaxing drink after working up a sweat. |
| 12/14/04 | Just like coffee, good to the last drop. |
| 12/17/04 | Its been a few days, but she still seems to be enjoying the meal I provided her. Either that, or she's managed to catch something on her own, and I missed it (this seems more likely). C'est la vie. |
| 12/17/04 | She inched back toward her hiding place the more shots I took. I'm pretty sure I didn't see any backup lights, but there might have been a soft *beep beep beep* coming from her general direction. There are other shots in the series tonight that show her ooching homeward, but I thought I would save you all the tedium and keep this post short. Please take a look at the larger version of this image. Notice the claws at the tips of her front legs? I love macro photography. |
| 12/19/04 | She seems to still be getting bigger. Perhaps the time of laying eggs is near? |
| 12/19/04 | This is a nice clear shot of her abdomen. The colors shown here are much closer to her "normal" colors. |
| 12/22/04 | I had several good shots from today, but they all looked the same, so I only posted one. |
| 12/25/04 | She ran away as soon as I started taking pictures. I think I was getting a little too close with the camera. |
| 12/25/04 | Merry Christmas from the spider and from me. |
| 12/28/04 | Its Rainy season here in the Bay Area, and warm dry days are few and far between. Today, there was a brief break from the rain, and she took that moment to drip dry from her leafy hiding place. |
| 12/29/04 | I must have caught her just as she was coming out for the night this time. I'm usually not able to get shots of her underside. |
| 12/29/04 | I was on my tippy toes for this shot, attempting to get as much detail as I could of her belly. I noticed a hook shaped projection. I'm guessing from drawings I've located on spider anatomy that this is her the epigyne. |
