That afternoon, I returned to exploring the corners of the village with a macro camera in hand. Usually, I often find spiders from the genus Gea heptagon in quite large sizes. However, this time I was surprised to see a small individual, sitting quietly in one corner of the village pond.
This spider looks very unique with its small body decorated with a distinctive white pattern on its back. It was perched among blooming Lantana flowers, perhaps waiting for small prey to pass by. Even though it is small in size, its attitude is no less brave. When I brought the lens closer, he immediately raised his front legs, as if showing alertness.
I also tried to capture this moment carefully. The dim lighting in the afternoon made things a bit difficult, but with additional lighting, I managed to get some of the best angles. In one photo, he appears to be posing dashingly on top of flowers, while in another photo, he looks at the camera with a curious face.
Finding Gea heptagon spiders in such small sizes is quite rare for me. Usually, I more often meet adult individuals who already have bigger and stronger bodies. This made me even more curious about their life cycle around this village pond.
The afternoon trip was an exciting experience. Even though at first I didn't really expect to find anything interesting, it turned out that this little surprise made my exploration even more enjoyable. Maybe, in the future I will observe this location more often to see how this little guy develops.
NOTE: I first wrote the article above in Indonesian, which is my own language, then I translated it using English with the help of Goggle.