A trip to the fish hatchery....

[shelliebear]

We went expecting to see fish.
Little did I know--IT IS A SPIDER HAVEN!
Tons--and I mean HUNDREDS--of spiders live there. How could I have missed them before? They're gorgeous...
I found two kinds of jumping spiders, and there were about 15 individuals of the two species, 10+ Larinoides patagiatus, about 13 long jawed orb weavers, and more I didn't have time to take photos of.
Absolutely FANTASTIC spiders. They took my breath away; as I said, I have not seen them here in the fish hatchery before.
They had tons of food though, because pond water for fish means mosquitos, which means SPIDER FOOD!
They were fat and happy.
Check them out!
Zebra Jumping Spider:



Larionoides patagiatus:


Egg sac?

Larionoids patagiatus again:











Long jawed orb weaver:


Other jumping spider:

[shelliebear]

A big THANKS to Eric and Lady Arachnophile over at the Spider ID forums for ID'ing these guys.

[shelliebear]

by the way, we were there for an hour or more and I didn't look at a single fish.

[CustomChevyGuy]

by the way, we were there for an hour or more and I didn't look at a single fish.

seems like a wasted trip to me, then again im not into spiders at all

[shelliebear]

not to me.i love spiders, obviously.