Micrathena, home

These days, most of my walks through the woods involve inadvertently breaking through the web of at least one small spider that had the misfortune of stringing her trap across my trail. I'm always apologetic that my attempts at vigilance have failed, and I can only hope that the arachnid will have better luck in locating a web site next time. Most of the spiders I disturb belong to a group known as Micrathenas, and they're small, spiny, very colorful, and roughly triangular in shape. They're considered quite beautiful—the name, roughly translated, means "little Athena"—and in late summer, they're exceptionally common. This one is Micrathena sagittata, the Arrowhead Micrathena, and it's an underside view taken with the new lens, which I'm ready to declare is more than up to the documentation task—assuming it functions for longer than the year its predecessor lasted before developing problems with its focusing electronics. At least I saw the web-making female long enough in advance to make a detour around her well-crafted insect trap.