Inside a secluded forest that few outsiders have visited, an Aussie photographer has taken the first clear image of a rarely seen spider in the wild.
Nick Volpe and fellow naturalist Lucy Kania have photographed close to 3,000 species of bug during their travels around the world.
But the colourful orb weaver, Gasteracantha aciculata, that villagers in Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain region guided them to, is one of their most exciting experiences.
“I was absolutely elated,” Volpe told Yahoo News.
“It’s such a unique-looking spider.
“It’s mostly all white, but there’s some black, and then the outer edge of the abdomen has this really rich yellow and red colour.”
Photographer Nick Volpe held his breath as he snapped a world-first picture of Gasteracantha aciculata. Source: Lucy Kania
Photographer holds his breath to snap rare spider
To get the research-grade picture of the spider, Volpe encouraged it onto a sheet of white perspex.
With dozens of locals watching on, he tried to bring the creature into focus through his lens.
But orb weavers generally only feel comfortable crouching on their webs, and so when this individual was moved away, it didn’t want to sit still.
“I was feeling 100 emotions at once,” Volpe recalled.
“Seeing it in the wild, the experience of being guided by local people, and then the spider not behaving, it was a perfect storm.”
“But it’s a storm we’ve encountered before trying to photograph invertebrates.
“So I literally held my breath and had full concentration inside the excitement.”
Celebration as world-first image published
There are around 70 species of Gasteracantha spider found throughout Australasia and South East Asia, and each has unique colourings and long spines, which are effective defence mechanisms against predators like birds.
“When birds try and grab them, their abdomen is so spiky with these weird horns, it’s actually really hard for them to digest them,” Volpe said.
Nick Volpe captured the first known clear image of a live Gasteracantha aciculata in the wild. Source: Nick Volpe
Gasteracantha look similar to Australia’s Christmas or jewel spider, but it is from a completely different genus called Austracantha.
Volpe uploaded his image to the nature app iNaturalist, creating plenty of excitement among online observers.
Previous examples uploaded to the website only showed the spider’s black undercarriage.
“What a stunning discovery! First proper example of this species! Congratulations!” an expert in the Gasteracantha genus wrote in response.
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