Spider On Our Fig Tree

I came in from my last day at school today and found a couple of these green lynx spiders on our little fig tree. They are fascinating spiders as they hunt prey on the leaves and do not build nests. They rarely bite humans and this girl didn't seem at all perturbed at my closeup photography. The female cares for the hatchlings while they are small. Kind of cute, isn't she?

My New Friend

The other morning I woke up early to see a huge spider on the ceiling directly over my head. It was about 5 inches across and brown in color. I wanted to capture it and take it outside so I stood on a chair with a pot. That's when I found out how incredibly fast these guys can move! It ran into the living room and after much chasing around it ran behind a picture on the wall. The wife opened the front door and I hurriedly chucked the picture out the door before the spider had a chance to run again. I like animals but this girl was just too fast and scary to fool with. The last I saw her she was scuttling across the yard. Later I looked her up. She is a brown huntsman spider, Heteropoda jugulans. It is a tropical spider that is only mildly venomous. I am pretty sure it was a "she" because of the large size. Interesting creature!