I’ve got a soft spot for the jumpers (genus Phidippus). There’s an extra layer of intelligence there that doesn’t seem to be present in other spiders. I love going out late in the summer and finding a big nickel sized P. audax and handling them (bothering, really). They’re the only species of spider I’ve interacted with who don’t seem to see your hand as the organism in the way things like Wolf Spiders or Hobo Spiders do when you collect them, they don’t seem to see of you as a plant like Orb Weavers do, they truly seem to recognize that they’ve been shuffled into the hand of a kaiju. You can try to distract them with a finger in their spidery little face and almost without fail, they’ll reposition and -blam!- their cephalothorax so as to look you right back in the face. To me, that’s a true mark of intelligence. Oftentimes, they seem as interested in me as I am in them. Nature is magic, yo. Edit - the censors here are ridiculous. I used a verb meaning to tilt or contort, one that could be misconstrued to mean a male rooster, or I guess male genetalia if you’re a degenerate Bungie employee.

Spiders are so amazing. A few of my favourites are the diving bell spider, fishing spider, and, just because, the goliath birdeater. The bolas spider, too. Do I really have to pick?!

I’m sorry, but I’m going to need to nuke this post from orbit. Just to be sure. 😂