These spiders are often found on relatively large webs that they spin across paths through the woods. Interestingly enough, they often build them in a diagonal manner such that you are usually able to duck under them on one side without disturbing the web or the spider - if you see them first of course!

We took a walk through the woods out at Round Hill Park about a thirty-minute drive from our house, and while the day was swelteringly hot, we had no luck finding much of anything else other than these spiders...

But, they're pretty cool spiders once you take a moment to look at them. They look like something you'd expect to see in a tropical jungle, not a deciduous forest here in PA.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and wireless control. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw. Round Hill Park, Elizabeth, PA.

I am pretty sure that all of these are Spined Micrathenas (Micrathena gracilis). The only one I'm not 100% about is the rusty brown colored one. Most photos I've found of the others are all jet black like the other two.

I really like the detail in the abdomens in these shots - especially in the ones where you are able to see the silk still coming out of the spinerettes. Those concentric rings leading out from the spinerettes really made the abdomens look like they were made of stone - and from what I've read about these spiders, their abdomens with those spines are hard enough that you can actually puncture your flesh if you try to smash the spider by hand.

Pretty cool little spiders.

- Bill