Javier Aznar González de Rueda

Spikes, colours and a glow that only appears under UV light. 🕷️

I photographed this spiny spider of the genus Micrathena in Ecuador’s Chocó rainforest, and I’m still fascinated by what ultraviolet light reveals.

This isn’t bioluminescence. It’s fluorescence: compounds in the spider’s body absorb UV radiation and re-emit some of that energy as visible light.

A study published in Biology Letters in 2007 found that fluorescence varies widely among spiders. The researchers even photographed Micrathena gracilis glowing under UV, showing that its abdominal cuticle can fluoresce. They suggested that this phenomenon might influence how spiders interact with predators and prey, although its exact function remains uncertain.

Could something similar explain the glow of this Ecuadorian spider? It’s a possibility, but we’d need species-specific research to know for sure.

The more time I spend photographing arthropods, the more I realise how much of their world remains invisible to us.

#Micrathena #SpiderPhotography #UVPhotography #halloween