Hobbies And Interests
Dangerous Ones
The two spiders in North America whose venom is problematic for humans are the black widow and the brown recluse. Both of them are about a half an inch long (the body, not counting legs and jaws) and not aggressive. The black widow spins a web in corners of windows and over the spigots of garden hoses. She's glossy black with the familiar red hourglass or stripe, or spot, on the underside of her abdomen. The brown recluse lives in the house and may rest on bedding or towels or in clothes. It bites when it's disturbed, so it might be profitable to shake out bedding, clothes and towels if they haven't been used for a while.
Orb Weavers
Araneus spiders, or orb weavers, spin beautiful large webs in meadows, in or between trees or even over windows. The webs can be up to 28 inches in diameter while the spider, which has a round and sometimes colorful abdomen, is only about 1/2 inch long. The argiope spider is a large spider, about an inch long, that also weaves large webs. They hang head down in the center with their four pairs of legs arranged in an X shape. Some of the webs have zig zag bands of silk in the center. The argiope's abdomen might be striped with black and white or yellow.
Hunters
Wolf spiders are also common in the country. They're also large, about an inch, and as hunters they have good vision. The female attaches her egg sac to her spinnerets and when the babies hatch they climb onto her back and are carried around. Jumping spiders are brightly colored and patterned. They walk with a jerky gait and like to leap on their prey--they can leap five times their length. Two of their eyes are enormous. They're often less than a quarter of an inch long.
Waiters
Flower spiders can be very colorful. Their pretty colors are camouflage, because they wait on flowers to ambush prey like wasps or bees. They can also change color slowly, and can walk backwards, forwards and sideways. Long bodied cellar spiders are extremely common in the country. They are sometimes called Daddy Long Legs but real Daddy Long Legs aren't spiders at all. Cellar spiders have unusually long legs and build messy webs in dark places, usually along ceilings or in corners. When disturbed they vibrate so much they blur and disappear.