Pointless photos of the day:

Pointless photos will have to be it, I'm afraid, even with a couple of days away. My neck's been out, you see (YES, AGAIN), and right now I have enough of a headache that it's actually sort of hard to process anything.

Ought to make this afternoon's pond study reeeally interesting.

Anyway, photos.

Above, one of the busiest roses I've seen in a while. Obviously those mating beetles were too busy being mating beetles to notice the Goldenrod Spider having a snack right below them. There was another, smaller beetle crawling around the outside of the flower as well, but you can't see it from this angle.

And on a nearby rose...

This fellow was probably looking for the lady with the bee in the other flower. He's a male Goldenrod Spider.

Colouration's a bit different and he's a lot smaller, but I promise that it's the same species.

And yes, he'll be taking his life into his hands when he decides to make a move on the female. Nature doesn't care; once he's done mating he doesn't have much use.

Things aren't much better for the female, though. She'll make an egg sac and spend the rest of her life defending it. She'll most likely die before it even hatches, actually.

It's so much fun being a spider.

That's why I'm not one, I guess.