A really suspicious case

[Prajwal J Ullal]

ID: Marbled Orb weaver spider?

While traversing the trail, came across this interesting sight. It seemed like a pair of spiders busy mating, with hardly any motion. Considering it to be a rare moment, atleast for me, I went ahead framing the act, but on close observation I realized there was something strange. The huge spider had lost few of its legs and was hanging slightly higher than where the two where and later slowly the smaller one went away from the bigger one, only to return back on the other one. This frame was taken while the small one returned back.

EXIF:
Canon 550D
Canon 100mm macro+ Raynox DCR 250
F/32
Shutterspeed 1/80
Handheld, external flash fired

Location: Nagla trail

[Mrudul Godbole]

So were they in a fight? The narrow aperture has helped to get more details. Maybe slight high shutter speed would have been good. Thanks for sharing.

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Got update on it, the smaller one is supposed to be Pirate spider(Mimetidae), which was feasting on the unsuspecting orb weaver
Couldnt get any higher shutterspeed as, probably due to the location where it was, couldnt capture any good details at higher speeds, had to really stabilize myself to achieve decently sharp image, of which had to do some PP to get decent exposure

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Interesting natural history moment. In these situations a monopod or tripod would have been very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi