Eight Legs

Hm. Well, I was going to go walk out back and photograph spiders, but instead I found myself watching two hours of octopus shows on the Science Channel (The Amazing Octopus and Deep Sea Aliens) and went online to learn that a new octopus species has been discovered.

Ah well. Fascinating, has eight legs, injects a paralyzing poison into the prey, sucks the dissolved flesh out..

No webs, though, and they don't live in my yard (probably just as well).

Spider Molting

I was out taking pictures and saw this little beauty molting. Look at that lovely, translucence and the beautiful brown striping

Jumping Spider

This was running up our wall. She wasn't terribly cooperative about posing for pictures, and was almost too small for my camera to deign to notice (about the size of an ant). Still, I got a couple. I'm quite proud of myself for correctly identifying her as a jumping spider (never mind what kind!)

I'm always surprised when I look at the pictures. Many of the spiders that look, to the naked eye, to be completely smooth and shiny turn out to be fuzzy. This one has adorable big eyes as well.

Another Cellar Spider for the House?

Yesterday, I found a delicate little green, long-legged spider dangling from my arm. I thought cellar spiders were usually brown, but in other ways, this resembles the ones I've seen elsewhere, including some delicate etchings on the back.