It's only fair
Mar. 11th, 2013 08:54 pm
I've posted this on Facebook and NatureShare already, you guys should have access to it, too. This is an immature female Phidippus audax (my favorite spider) on the exterior of our kitchen window screen, making it the first outdoor spider sighting of the year. I identified it as female by the size of her abdomen (no jokes please) and as an immature by the orange markings, and the time of year. This spider's markings will most likely change to white as she ages, but a minority of P. audax spiders retain their orange markings.
100 Species #19: Phiddipus audax
Apr. 5th, 2011 06:26 pm
A small Phiddipus audax spider prowls our wooden step. I feel like I just wrote about this animal, because I did: It was #43 in my 50 more urban species project. What to say? Very commonly found around houses and windowsills and such, has cool green fangs and a while smiley face on its abdomen. It's one of our easiest-to-identify jumping spiders, and is sometimes called the "bold jumping spider," as it often turns to face humans rather than scuttling away. Read the comments to my earlier post to get lots of opinions on how to pronounce the name.

I got pretty decent pictures but Alexis got an amazing one.