Walking on water

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Walking on water

July 11, 2015 by Mike Powell

Some movement in the muddy water right below my feet caught my attention yesterday as I was standing at the edge of a small stream at Huntley Meadows Park observing a dragonfly. A Six-spotted Fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) was walking on the water with its legs fully extended.

The other times that I seen one of these fishing spiders, they always had a few legs hanging onto the shore, but this one was moving across the surface of the water pretty quickly, perhaps chasing a potential prey. Unfortunately, overhanging vegetation prevented me from tracking the spider’s movement, so I don’t know if the hunt was successful.

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, spiders, Summer, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Dolomedes triton, fishing spider, Huntley Meadows Park, Six-spotted Fishing Spider, Tamron 180mm macro lens, walking on water | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on July 11, 2015 at 6:30 am | Reply Dina

Hehehe, great shot, Michael!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Dina
- on July 11, 2015 at 6:42 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Dina. Best wishes to you as well for a super weekend.
on July 11, 2015 at 10:20 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

He looks like he was cheating a bit by holding on to a floating cattail leaf.
Nice shot!
on July 11, 2015 at 10:35 am | Reply Lyle Krahn

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk on water like that! Then again I’d prefer not to look like that.
on July 11, 2015 at 11:06 am | Reply judysbirds

Very cool photo, Mike. How big do you estimate the spider to be?
- on July 11, 2015 at 3:59 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I think that it’s close to three inches long with legs fully extended like this.
  - on July 11, 2015 at 10:08 pm judysbirds
    
    Thanks. I’m wondering if that’s the spider I saw a Green Heron snagging that I wrote about a few posts back. It kind of looks like it!!
  - on July 11, 2015 at 10:10 pm judysbirds
    
    Thanks. I wonder if that’s the spider I saw a Green Heron snag. I wrote about him a few posts back. It kind of looks like the spider you photographed!
on July 11, 2015 at 7:50 pm | Reply Charlie@Seattletrekker.com

Fascinating creature, the photo really captures the uniqueness.
on July 11, 2015 at 11:24 pm | Reply waltersanford

Good clarity, Mike!
- on July 12, 2015 at 4:39 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Walter.