(If you don't like spiders, you probably should close this post ... )

Lincoln Park is a 1,208-acre park situated along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Park is the city's largest public park. At several points along the entire 7-mile stretch of the park, pedestrians can access Lincoln Park via underground tunnels passing under the 6- to 10-lane LSD (Lake Shore Drive). In late summer the orb weavers reach their largest sizes having spent the summer gorging on insects drawn to the lights in the tunnels.

Arachnida is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals (arthropods). The term is derived from a Greek myth of the arrogant human weaver Arachne who was turned into a spider. Spiders are the largest order in the class, which also includes scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and solifuges.

Chicago orb weaver 2019 by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The spider species Araneus diadematus is commonly called the European garden spider, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider and crowned orb weaver. A. diadematus is found throughout Europe and across North America. Individual spiders' colorings can range from extremely light yellow to very dark grey, but all A. diadematus have mottled white markings across the dorsal abdomen, with four or more segments forming a cross.

Chicago orb weaver 2019


Digital images shared in this post were captured in RAW using a Sony a7II and a Canon FD 200mm f/4 macro mounted to tripod with gimbal head. Processing was performed in Lightroom and noise processing in Topaz DeNoise6. A Canon FD 25 Extension Tube was used to adjust the minimum focusing distance of the lens. A Metabones FD to E adapter was used to mount the manual focus lens to the Sony body.

Extreme close-up


The legs of orb-weaver spiders are specialized for spinning orb webs. The webs are built by the larger females who hang head down in the center of the web or remain hidden in nearby foliage, with one claw hooked to a signal line connected to the main orb waiting for a disturbance to signal the arrival of prey. Prey is then quickly bitten and wrapped in silk before being stored for later consumption. The initial bite serves to paralyze the prey and minimize the danger of the spider herself being stung or bitten, and the enzymes thus injected serve to begin liquefaction of the prey's internal structures.

Chicago orb weaver 2019


The oldest true spiders evolved about 300 million years ago. Most of these early segmented fossil spiders probably belonged to a group of primitive spiders with spinnerets placed underneath the middle of the abdomen, rather than at the end as in modern spiders.

Why is it when you run into a spider web, you suddenly turn into a ninja?

Illinois orb weaver


These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html

(If you don't like spiders, you probably should close this post ... )

Lincoln Park is a 1,208-acre park situated along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Park is the city's largest public park. At several points along the entire 7-mile stretch of the park, pedestrians can access Lincoln Park via underground tunnels passing under the 6- to 10-lane LSD (Lake Shore Drive). In late summer the orb weavers reach their largest sizes having spent the summer gorging on insects drawn to the lights in the tunnels.

Arachnida is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals (arthropods). The term is derived from a Greek myth of the arrogant human weaver Arachne who was turned into a spider. Spiders are the largest order in the class, which also includes scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and solifuges.

Chicago orb weaver 2019 by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The spider species Araneus diadematus is commonly called the European garden spider, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider and crowned orb weaver. A. diadematus is found throughout Europe and across North America. Individual spiders' colorings can range from extremely light yellow to very dark grey, but all A. diadematus have mottled white markings across the dorsal abdomen, with four or more segments forming a cross.

Chicago orb weaver 2019


Digital images shared in this post were captured in RAW using a Sony a7II and a Canon FD 200mm f/4 macro mounted to tripod with gimbal head. Processing was performed in Lightroom and noise processing in Topaz DeNoise6. A Canon FD 25 Extension Tube was used to adjust the minimum focusing distance of the lens. A Metabones FD to E adapter was used to mount the manual focus lens to the Sony body.

Extreme close-up


The legs of orb-weaver spiders are specialized for spinning orb webs. The webs are built by the larger females who hang head down in the center of the web or remain hidden in nearby foliage, with one claw hooked to a signal line connected to the main orb waiting for a disturbance to signal the arrival of prey. Prey is then quickly bitten and wrapped in silk before being stored for later consumption. The initial bite serves to paralyze the prey and minimize the danger of the spider herself being stung or bitten, and the enzymes thus injected serve to begin liquefaction of the prey's internal structures.

Chicago orb weaver 2019


The oldest true spiders evolved about 300 million years ago. Most of these early segmented fossil spiders probably belonged to a group of primitive spiders with spinnerets placed underneath the middle of the abdomen, rather than at the end as in modern spiders.

Why is it when you run into a spider web, you suddenly turn into a ninja?

Illinois orb weaver


These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html