This is perhaps the most handsome of hundreds of spiders I scooped up as flotsam in a brim full catchment or runoff basin after several days of rain here. Also present were a good many other arthropods. I'm not much into spiders but this one was quite stylish and is apparently a species new to bugguide.

I got the idea to check the flotsam from Michael Garcia's Forum piece on finding scores of tiny critters in snowmelt puddles. I used my sweepnet made from a sheer curtain panel and a large fish landing net frame to scoop up floating grass and reed stems, twigs, leaves, plastic bottles, and assorted other rubbish, soon discovering that the preferred refuge for most was any of the hundreds of scraps of plastic foam insulation, packing material, and hot beverage cups. These rafts were sometimes crawling with dozens of species, a very rich harvest indeed.