Long Jaws Locked | Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas’s Image

Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas (Germany) spots this mating pair of long-jawed orb weavers on the wooden rail of a boardwalk.

Alexis was on a guided nature walk in a Berlin wetland when he came across this scene.

He used a technique called focus stacking to combine 27 images taken from a fixed position into one, using specialist software.

These two long-jawed orb weaver spiders are mating. Their jaws, known as chelicerae, are locked together.

The smaller male (below) transfers sperm to the female from one of its pedipalps, a secondary pair of forward appendages found in spiders.