Friday Photo: 27 June

Last week we got a pic of one of our smallest arachnids, so this week it’s one of our largest.  This is our native tunnelweb Hexatheles hochstetteri.  They emerge out of their tunnels at night to wait for prey to stray close to the web.  Which introduces the technical challenge of trying to photograph when it’s actually pretty dark.  They have the more basal features of four book-lungs and paraxial fangs.

Click for larger, higher res image