Orchids and Spiders - Costa Rica

When we still lived in Cloverdale, British Columbia, Canada - I had a small orchid collection. When we decided to move to Costa Rica, the collection went to a new home.

It was very easy to start a new collection here because Costa Rica is home to about 1,400 orchid species, 20% of which are endemic (they live nowhere else on this planet). In fact, the national flower of Costa Rica is the orchid guaria morada (Cattleya skinneri). I have several of these.

Some of my orchids were purchased at orchid shows, others I confiscated from friends who were having trouble looking after them. They never saw them again of course. So now my collection numbers twenty-six orchids. They are not all different species and some I have not been able to identify. I have three vandas with different coloured blooms.

Our current house came with some orchids and I’ve been able to take some divisions for my own collection. It’s so easy keeping these gorgeous plants in a tropical climate - they live outdoors all year around.

Most of my orchids are hanging from the atrium outside our bedroom. Some I keep closer - the ones that need a bit of TLC - so I can keep an eye on them. I walked around the other day and took photos of my colección de orquídeas. Nothing is blooming at the moment.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

The other day, Lance spied a spider that we have never seen before. I took a photo and my friend Claudia, who is (amongst many other things) a protozoologist and she identified it for me. Behold, here is the spiny-backed orb weaver, or Gasteracantha cancriformis, Araneidae:

Although you cannot see it here, it also has an iridescent sheen to it.