Friday August 5, 2005
Up Close
Cone Flower Closeup

Another macro of the Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea). For a sense of scale the center "ball" of the flower is a little smaller than half a golf ball.

While taking the shot I noticed a little irregularity between the spines of the blossom. Very small, smaller than a pea, maybe the size of a BB. A light, almost washed out green.

It's a spider, nestled in with the pollen. Even with the macro lens I couldn't bring out much detail so I grabbed the 50mm and adapters for higher magnification reversed lens shots.

The result is below. A cute little thing with pollen clinging to it like bright, sticky Nerf balls. A couple blossoms over another spider had set up house in a flower as well. I believe it is a Crab Spider, although much smaller than the one photographed last year.


Closeup on mini-spider
phil • 2005-08-05 01:29pm

I like the eyes, looks like a star-ship.
Ted • 2005-08-06 04:07pm

Great catch!