Another walk into Bukit Timah led to the sighting of several Huntsman Spiders (Sparassidae). Sometimes known as giant crab spiders, these relatively large spiders are often in abundance in Singapore’s nature reserves.

For this shoot, I loaned a Nikkor 105mm F2.8 (non VR) from Nick to play with. Lighted with the camera’s onboard flash and diffused with my flimsy piece of wrapper foam as explained in my earlier blog post.

#1 A relatively common Huntsman Spider that tends to close it’s legs up when at rest, resembling a hairy ball on a leaf

#2 Closer look at the eyes

#3 A green Huntsman Spider, sometimes mistaken to be a Clubionid from afar

#4 This particular Huntsman Spider used to be classified as a Sac Spider (Clubionidae) but was moved to the Huntsman Spider family (Sparassidae). Now Thelcticopis sp.

#5 Another view of the Thelcticopis sp.

#6 Beautiful distinct patterns on this Huntsman Spider

#7 Almost customary to get a shot of the eyes. Lovely face ya?

#8 A juvenile Huntsman Spider, just over 1cm long including the legs

#9 Another juvenile Huntsman Spider. The last leg has a different colour, probably because it had regrown from a recent moult.

#10 Closer look at the carapace and abdomen

#11 So many Huntsman Spiders on the forest floor!

#12 There were other subjects as well. Used this Longhorn Beetle (Epepeotes luscus) to test my lighting.

#13 One of the many Orb Weaver Spiders (Eriovixia sp.) that I almost ran into

#14 Cute little Tiger Beetle (Therates dimidiatus?) that allowed me to get close.. probably sleeping. 🙂

#15 Scorpions joined the night party as well

#16 There were streams nearby, couldn’t leave the frogs alone!

#17 Saint Andrew’s Cross Toadlet (Pelophryne signata), small but beautiful little toad

#18 Top view of the toadlet

#19 Found this dead leaf mantis dancing for us

#20 Peering at the head!

#21 Lots of Fishing Spiders (Dolomedes sp.) in the stream!

#22 Side view. This spiders belong to the Nursery Web Spider family, Pisauridae

#23 Front view reveals a lovely face 😛

#24 Finally, found a tiny little ground spider hiding in a crevice.. a Cryptothele sundaica? Melvyn called it the mud-mimic ground spider

#25 Didn’t stay long to let me get more shots!

The full album can be viewed here.

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