Look what we found on last night’s spider walk! This is a web casting spider, and she’s terrific. She’s humble. She’s radiant. She’s some pig. Wrong book. Whatever.

So instead of stringing a web up in a tree somewhere, this Charlottle makes a little net that she holds in her tiny hands. 

Do spiders have hands? Nope, but ‘hands’ sounds better than ‘palps.’

Then she takes up a position opposite a  branch and waits. As soon as something tasty walks by, she pounces and throws her net over it. Like a gangster. About to toss a body in a river. Love it.

Our dune forest is crawling with cast-net spiders, and we get lucky and see them about once a week. Here’s one I made earlier: