Spiders No.6 – Egg sack and eggs

[Walter Piorkowski]

Upper Image:
Leitz Ortholux microscope
4X Leitz projection eyepiece plus 1/3x relay lens
Leitz 2.5X plan achromat objective.
Image stack, 50 images at .002 inch increments
Leitz dry darkfield condenser D 0.80
Canon 50D
Zerene and Photoshop processing.
Live subjects.

Lower image:
Leitz Ortholux microscope
4X Leitz projection eyepiece plus 1/3x relay lens
Leitz 4X Plan fluorite objective.
Image stack, 51 images at .001 inch increments
Leitz dry darkfield condenser D 0.80
Canon 50D
Zerene and Photoshop processing.
Live subjects.

There are many forms that the spider egg sacks can take, many are opaque, but this one is almost transparent. Made up of loosely woven silk strands the eggs are cradled in a cushion of webbing.

There are shapes and patterns visible in the eggs but at this early sage of development, no recognizable features are seen. The lower image has enough resolution to see the fine surface structure. It reflects light like the ice crystals seen on old snow.

Note: All the eggs are white. Variations in color and brightness are entirely the effect of the illumination used.

Walt

[corvus]

These are vey nice. I'm hoping you will post more of this particular "batch" of eggs as they develop.

[Charles Krebs]

Walt,

Great images! Really like the "context" seen in the first one.

[Walter Piorkowski]

Hi Ron. Following the growth is the plan, but be patient as my experience shows a 3-4 week wait for hatching. What’s worse is when it happens and I am stuck at work!

Hi Charles. I agree. The close-up is nice but showing the web sack gives the study more meaning to the casual observer. By the way, I haven’t forgotten your request on sensor magnification. Hope to get to it this weekend.

Walt

[corvus]

Thanks, Walt. When I saw your "Spiderlings in Nursery Web" post I thought they were the same as in this post. I'm looking forward to more - no matter where they are from.

[PaulFurman]

my experience shows a 3-4 week wait for hatching.

Oh, thank you for that detail. I've got a batch of spider eggs in a plastic box and was afraid I had suffocated them. Well maybe I have still... it has been almost 2 weeks.

I tried a stack at 15x and it was tough getting it to stack correctly, I had to turn off all adjustments in ZS or else it went into spirals & other odd smearing effects.

[Walter Piorkowski]

Hello Paul. I have enjoyed your spider posts very much. Your egg image shows the same crystal like surface as I have seen. I haven’t tried pushing the magnification as high as your 15X due to them hatching. Will post something similar in the near future. Not easy stuff.

Very hard to say at times what the eggs will do. I have some that never hatched. If you see some browning of the interior along with little white specks, (dried egg shells) that is a good sign. Good luck to us both.

Walt

[PaulFurman]

Walter, mine hatched! Ack, what to do now?

[Walter Piorkowski]

Paul. Thanks for the update. I have popped over to your post on the Nature Photography site. Looks like you have had your hands full. Sorry you got a movement on your single spiderling shot. It still reveals lots of details nonetheless. And thanks for the reference to my post.

I have been keeping my egg sacks in clear containers with cover slips on top so when the event occurs I don’t have tiny entities all over my microscope. This also affords me the chance to take images without disturbing the subjects inside. However I must admit that as the number of subjects go up the harder it is to find something not moving, hence the freeze kill treatment.

My experience is limited but some spiderlings leave the sack ready to start their likes with immediate web building. Others seem unprepared for anything, not even having developed eyes, as most of the subjects in your post. Survival for these is best if mom is still around and the here is a web for them to climb onto for further development. There they will sit for many days.

Excellent quality image stacking Paul.
Walt