There are a whole host of these spiders living in the bird of paradise. Look at how cleverly they use the side and bottom of the leaf in their construction.
And I'd never seen them until a few days ago. They were there all along. I just never looked(1).
According to the bugguide people whom, yes, I've been barraging with pictures, they are funnel web spiders from the family Agelenidae. Neat, aren't they?
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to trim the plant back soon. It's getting to the point where the mail carriers start writing polite notes about the difficulty they are having getting to the mailbox, and somehow I don't think the news that I have declared it a spider sanctuary will impress them very much.
(1) Some people (like me) have to learn to see. Others already know--I was raving about the tunnel webs to my sister and she said "Oh, yes. There are a lot of them. I saw them all the time when I was gardening." Sigh.
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