Hopefully this is the right sub for sharing my appreciation for spiders.

I really like seeing spiders in my home, because they eat the other critters that might be trying to invade my place. There aren’t any dangerous spiders in this country, so they’re all welcome here.

Thumbs up for spiders. 👍👍

Just the other day, I encountered a relatively big spider. A little while after switching the lights off in the night, I suddenly remembered I had to do something. I got up and switched the lights back on, and that’s when I saw it. In my geographic location 2-3 cm is on the bigger end of the spectrum, but in warmer climates you would probably call it small instead. It quickly scurried away under the kitchen cupboard, so I guess that’s where it also stays during the day. I wished it good hunting.

Since it was running around, it probably isn’t the web weaving kind. The abdomen was long and the legs were relatively long, but not super long. It was difficult to to identify it any better in those conditions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4768868

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4768804

Taken on a Samsung phone (plus a small bit of tinkering)

[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.