Rhododendron leaf hopper in a spiders grips.

[footman]

 

[Cobra]

What a colourful creature!
I've never seen one before.
Well spotted and captured Laurence

 

[Norkie]

Yes, good spot, great image.

 

[GardenersHelper]

That's good. They are rather small, so not easy. Well done getting the hopper and the spider in focus.

 

[footman]

That's good. They are rather small, so not easy. Well done getting the hopper and the spider in focus.

Actually we're inundated with leaf hoppers this year which is odd as I've never seen them before. We have a lot of rhododendrons in our garden, it's a very acid soil the consequence of which seems to be fewer insects.
We've had a little chat about hand shakiness before, the spider was very small, probably about 4mm across. There is no way I could hand hold and get any sharpness at that size of subject. I had to use a monopod, fortunately I still have the excellent but outrageously expensive RRS monopod head left over from my football shooting days.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Actually we're inundated with leaf hoppers this year which is odd as I've never seen them before. We have a lot of rhododendrons in our garden, it's a very acid soil the consequence of which seems to be fewer insects.

Interesting. We are on a quite localised acid outcrop (we have a lot of camellias and several rhododendrons and azaleas). I hadn't realised that might be the cause of our not seeming to have much variety or numbers of insects.

We've had a little chat about hand shakiness before, the spider was very small, probably about 4mm across. There is no way I could hand hold and get any sharpness at that size of subject. I had to use a monopod, fortunately I still have the excellent but outrageously expensive RRS monopod head left over from my football shooting days.

I keep thinking I should use some support for smaller subjects, but every time I (rarely) try it I rediscover how much I don't like it, and carry on with rather high failure rates hand-held.

 

[davholla]

Actually we're inundated with leaf hoppers this year which is odd as I've never seen them before. We have a lot of rhododendrons in our garden, it's a very acid soil the consequence of which seems to be fewer insects.
We've had a little chat about hand shakiness before, the spider was very small, probably about 4mm across. There is no way I could hand hold and get any sharpness at that size of subject. I had to use a monopod, fortunately I still have the excellent but outrageously expensive RRS monopod head left over from my football shooting days.

I don't understand why acid soil means less insects? Surely heathers etc have insects. (I could imagine rhododendrons means less insects they are not that popular with many of them compared to other plants).

 

[footman]

I don't understand why acid soil means less insects? Surely heathers etc have insects. (I could imagine rhododendrons means less insects they are not that popular with many of them compared to other plants).

I think it’s more to do with the type of plants that flourish in an ericaceous soil do not appear to attract the volume of insects. I’m no gardener though, my wife does the fiddly stuff!