I am in LOVE...

How can you not love this face?

To continue with examples of the serendipitous way my life works, out of the blue the other day I decided to see if I could get the sliding screen door either back on its track or figure out a way to hinge it. (It's been lying on its side tucked away on the deck for years...) In the process of wrestling with the door (which I did manage to get back up, more or less) I happened to notice this little fellow.

Even if you don't like spiders, how can you not like jumping spiders?! Okay, so one friend is most likely now afraid of any photo I post on Facebook. She says it's the eyes. Fair point; jumpers typically have eight of them, with at least two huge ones front and center. As well as eyes in the back of their head; how cool is that?

But (probably because of all of those eyes) they look at you. They notice you. They react to you with seeming intelligence. There's a connection being made and it's marvelous.

The legs-up photo is because he she was trying to get away and I wanted his her attention, so I tapped the chair arm and disturbed him her a bit more than I had planned. Oops. (He went merrily on his way when I had clicked off a dozen or so shots.)

CORRECTION: Paraphidippus species -- Emerald Jumper. Always go with the obvious. *sigh* With over 400 species of jumping spiders north of Mexico, it isn't easy to say which is which... Doesn't help that the females look different from the males. The juveniles probably look different from adults. Spiders of the same species can be highly variable. And some spiders can even change their patterns and colors like a chameleon. I'm sticking to Pelegrina (the white marks on the abdomen seem to be rather characteristic of the genus) and will let the nice folks at BugGuide.net worry about which one. happy to be corrected.

Two days earlier I photographed the little one shown below on my front deck. I believe it too is a Pelegrina Paraphidippus; note the same white markings. Smaller and plainer = male. The line down the center of the abdomen really threw me until I realized it was not a true mark but merely the light reflecting off the spider.

Black Beauty.

Oh, yeah. That's exactly what you think it is.

I was so excited over finding my second black widow that I didn't even think to take her picture before moving her away from the nature center's front door (and safely relocating her to a big log in the woods well away from the building)--she was hanging out with an orb weaver who had staked claim to that particular wall the week before. Most unusual in that the widow was out in the open and that two large predators were less than three inches apart and leaving each other alone.

Shiny black, distinct shape (doesn't get more Halloween-y than that, eh?) and, of course, the hourglass. (I'm told we have two species here, Northern and Southern Black Widow. Southern's hourglass is typically one marking, Northern is made up of two separate triangles. This one sort of hits middle ground. I don't care: it's a black widow.)

Sorry. More spiders.

They're everywhere!

Another yellow garden spider, this time not in her web. The truck spooked her when I pulled into the drive; she bolted for cover and the movement caught my eye, else I'd have overlooked her. 

(You would think it would be difficult to overlook a two-foot tall web, wouldn't you?)

I made it home without disturbing her the third day after discovering her; she was even calm enough to let me take a bunch of photos.

Here is another lovely; best guess is Spotted orbweaver, Neoscona crucifera (note the cross--upside down here--on her back):

What a stunningly beautiful creature… Furriness makes spiders cuter, right? (Ok, tweaking the black and white levels to adjust the exposure did bring up a bit more color than shows naked eye. They're somewhat dusty looking in person.)

See? Bit drab. Here she is tucked up in the window frame where she spends most of the day.

And out again about an hour after sunset… (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my camera and image editing programs??? She glows!)

I nearly walked into another orbweaver's web at the end of my drive while taking pictures of the garden spider. Can you see her, in the purposefully curled-up the leaves at one of her web's anchor points? That's textbook behavior. (And ooh, was she unhappy when I lifted a leaf to peek in at her!) See above comment regarding image editing programs…

Found this wee thing when I was shooting the yellow garden spider. That unusually circular stabilimentum (zigzagging stuff in the middle of a web) caught my eye. (For scale, it's a little smaller around than a pencil eraser.) Book says young orb weavers will sometimes spin a circular stabilimentum. CORRECTION: Lined Orbweaver. Tracks and Signs of Insects... has an exact description (and nearly identical photo) of this wee one and her web. She's set up house just below the garden spider's web; I sure hope mum doesn't eat her!

The same little one on a different day. She's really having fun with this web-building thing.

Augh! Too. Much. Cuteness...

Found this itty bitty crab spider under the rim of my smoothie cup, of all places. It was rescued and placed on a goldenrod in my front garden.


Be glad I'm not taking photos of the seriously creepy spiders that live in the house.


[UPDATE: Both large orb weavers have disappeared. :o( ]


[UPDATE to UPDATE:  Found the garden spider again. :o) ]

Yes, one more spider. [updated]

Sorry, they are the only critters who (mostly) sit still long enough to have their pictures taken.

Pick your favorite common name: yellow garden spider, black & yellow garden spider, common garden spider, orb weaver, Argiope aurantia...

Don't care what you call her except wonderful: that sure looks like a green head fly to me. (Ok, so it has green eyes, not a green head. Whatever. That's what it is commonly called. And if you don't understand my rejoicing, you've never been to the Mid-Atlantic coast in summer.)

Look up. She's got a not-so-little secret tucked up there above the window frame.

UPDATE: She's gone, but she left a little something else to remember her by...