Just before the Thanksgiving holiday I went out my front door to find interesting photography subjects in my yard. After a couple of steps, I walked right into a spider web. It was sticky and creeped me out. No, I am not fond of spiders. As I turned around, I saw what was left of the web above my head. A spider had spun a web that had strands connected from the roof to the front porch overhang.

I found the tiny spider, about the size of a dime sitting in what was left of the web which was most of it. To my naked eye it looked strange so I began snapping pictures of it through a telephoto lens.

It is one of the strangest looking spiders I have ever seen. It is a colorful spider that resembles a crab. It has a off-white abdomen with black spots and red protruding spines. It is a spider commonly seen in Florida in the fall.

Suddenly the spider descended on a thin strand of silk and floated down slowly. The light breeze carried it just where the spider wanted to go – to shrubs next to our sidewalk. Once it landed on the leaves of the shrub it attached the strand to the leaves and climbed up the strand to the center of its web.

The spider and its web remained at my front door entryway for days. I was able to duck under the web as I went in and out of the house. When I returned after a trip to Maryland for Thanksgiving, the spider and all evidence of its web was gone. Perhaps the predicted freeze that night cause the spider to close up shop.