5. Spiders... love them or hate them

I was always afraid of spiders, any kind, small ones, big ones. But when I see them through my lens I find them so majestic and beautiful. They still make me scream though :P

My favorite spider is a small one called zebra spider, it's a jumping spider.  You can find them everywhere in Chicago.  I was lucky enough to photograph both female and male spiders outside my balcony.

This are small spiders, the females are 5-7 millimeters (0.20 to 0.28 inches) and the males are 5-6 millimeters (0.20 to 0.24 inches).  Because they are jumping spiders they don't built a web. They have four pairs of large eyes to locate their prey and their jumping ability allow them to pounce and capture it. Source: Wikipedia

The first photo is the first one that I took of this kind of spider and after this one I was so amazed that everyday I was searching for them on my windows and each time that I saw one I went outside and tried to photograph it while it was hunting or just taking a walk.

I had the great opportunity to see her hunt a fly (I said she, because this one is a female), first she moved really really slowly...one step at a time... and when she was close enough from its prey she jumped over the fly! I couldn't believed what my eyes saw, so quick and deadly!!

Zebra spider - female

Another particularity of this kind of spiders is that they notice you, I mean, they are aware of humans and if you are looking at them they look back at you!!

What do you want?

This time she caught a big one.

Zebra spider - female

And it looks like after a couple of shoots she noticed me...

Zebra spider - female

Zebra spider - female

Zebra spider - female

Crazy look

Zebra spider - female

In the next two photos we have a male zebra spider crawling on the floor and walls of my balcony.

Zebra spider - male

Of course, he noticed me also...

Zebra spider -  male

The next spider is an Agalenatea Redii, a species of orb-weavers and are also very common in Chicago. You can find them anywhere, outside of the John Hancock Observatory (yes, on the 94th floor! Who knows how they got there!), at the Navy Pier, hanging on the street lights, on the trees, ...

During the day they are hidden, you can only see their webs, but when the sun goes down they return to their web and just stay there waiting for the meal.  This spiders are not aggressive and biting is their last resource.

Agalenatea Redii - orbweaver spider