Other bugs around the hives

I mentioned previously finding a rather large spider under the roof of one of my hives. Its not uncommon to find spirders, just that that one was pretty big and unusual. Normally, I see a couple spiders, but they are almost always the same type. I decided to try and take a picture of them (sorry, the focus is not always great – I need a camera with a macro setting).

The spiders range in size. Most interesting is they way they crouch in corners. They crouch with their legs together in sets of two (the first picture). I’m not sure my picture does it justice, but they always remind me of a cricket more than a spider when they are crouched like that. They will just stay like that unless I get them to move with a twig. I always let them go on the ground a little way from the hives, but there are always more when I come back the next time.

I also had a run in with a butterfly while checking a hive. It landed on the hive, then happily climbed on my finger and hung out for a little while. There are lots of butterflies around because the owner of the land where I keep the hives has a wonderful variety of flowering plants (including butterfly bush).

I most commonly see two types of butterflies. One is the type pictured above. I decided to try to take some pictures of the other main type I see too.

If anyone know anything about any of these (spiders or butterflies), I’d be interested in it.