Download high resolution image here.

I kept this specimen on a branch placed in water until Apr 19, 2014 before taking this picture. During that time it surrounded itself with a loose jumble of fine silk-like fibers in preparation for producing an egg mass. The fiber tuft in the upper left corner has been pulled back to better show the specimen within. The specimen was inactive enough at this point for the stacked image here. The location for making its nest may have been altered by the branch being placed in water.

This image is from a CombineZP processed stack of 214 images with a 22.6 µm step taken with a Mitutoyo M Plan APO 5×/0.14 ∞/0 mm microscope objective + Nikon 135 mm F2.8 AIS telephoto lens + Nikon D300 camera (magnification 3.375×; technique described here).

Phases of development: