spiderbro

[Image description: a fuzzy black jumping spider sitting on a pot with white spots on her (guessing female, cause they tend to be larger) abdomen and a red sheen on her palps.]

I posted this to reddit a year ago. Back then I was living in the south bay area, and for a while had a cellar spider chilling in my sink. There were a few times I was afraid that I washed her out when I forgot to be careful of her while doing dishes, but she was tough and always held on. Saw her for a month or so, and I hope she moved on to another roost.

Big mamma with babies I found hiking on the plains of Colorado. She was about the size of my house key. Spider sister I guess?

A wonderful species, they have some awesome coloring and spines.

What a fun little guy. I love jumpers: you can just pick them up and carry them around with you and they'll flit about your fingers exploring you with no qualms about it. I saw this guy on an outdoor playset at a local park.

The story of how I discovered this beauty was unfortunate, and a borderline Community Guidelines point 2 violation on my part.

I was kayaking down a rather wide river with some friends, and I was getting into the habit of gliding underneath dead branches overhanging the water so that I could hunt for insects and plants to photograph (I enjoy studying naturalism). By accident, I knocked a spider out of its home, and I proceeded to absolutely freak out and ended up killing the spider. Upon learning it was an orbweaver I felt bad, because I know that they are typically harmless to people, but hey, it's all a learning experience.

I saw this creepy little fella at work a couple of months ago. I work at an RV factory, and as such I have to deal with my fair share of skids. I was lifting one up and getting ready to move it when a large, grey blob fell out between a couple of boards.

When I saw that it was a giant, hairy spider, I did the only natural thing a spiderbro could do, and scooped it up in a box to take it home and get some good photos.

Turns out it was a grey cross spider (AKA the "bridge spider"), Larinioides sclopetarius, which is in the Orbweaver family. They tend to live in anthropogenic environments, especially bridges, under porches, street lights, etc. I released it into my front porch once the photoshoot was done.