Catfaced Spider

Catfaced Spider

The first time I saw one of these spiders on a watering can, I did the creeped out shudder.  Yikes this is one ugly bug!  But of course, it was a great subject to photograph! Needing to know it’s name, I did a search online and discovered that this is a catfaced spider.  You can’t really see the reason for the name from this angle, but it does appear to have the face of a cat on it’s big bulbos back area.  None of my original photos of the first catfaced spider turned out well, as the spider stayed in the shadows and the lighting was bad. This was the case with most of the others I found outside.  Then one day I was coming home from droping my son off at school when I noticed this one on the face of the house, in the early morning light.  It was much bigger than the other catfaced spiders I had previously found, and the light was perfect.  I took quite a few pictures while it hung out. I am looking forward to someday having a better lens for photographing insects. I would like to capture more detail.

This photo shows off the spider’s striped legs and the nice brown color of it’s body. 

While I would still come unglued at the seams if the thing were crawling on me, I am not so freaked out now when I look at these guys.  It’s not a poisonous spider and I am happy to have them living outside in my yard. I think it’s cool that photography causes me to learn more about nature and to have a better appreciation for wildlife.