Thank you so much to everybody for all your lovely comments and favs for yesterday's Ladybird Blue - I'm so thrilled that it made the PP! I can't promise to reply individually but I will certainly visit everyone's projects.
The female spider in this photo is carrying a large sac of eggs, and the male courted her for most of the morning, trying to get close, but each time she chased him off. His palps were waving furiously with excitement - there are two, but only one of them is easily visible in this photo - it looks like a thick antenna and the bulge at the end is for depositing sperm.
Eventually he called her bluff and wandered off, and she disappeared down a crack, hoping he might come back for dinner.
(Today is my 35th wedding anniversary - I'm so glad I didn't eat my mate!)
Great photo. LOve your composition and story. It's quite fascinating to observe spider, isn't ot ? I keep checking on my thorn spider every day ( posted couple days ago).
Great capture and very interesting info. It seems playing hard to get is a common feature of a lot of species on the planet!