Every year around Halloween I take a few of the neighbor kids to a nearby abandoned (and as legend has it, haunted) pet cemetery to see how scared they'll get. Usually it's just good clean fun and no one gets hurt. Well, last night I went off my usual "tour route" and we were surprised to find this 5ft tall jumping spider lurking in the shadows and moonlight!!

I managed to get one of the girls in the group to stand next the spider just to get a sense of scale into the photo, but that didn't work out so well. :-( Closed casket funeral services will be held this weekend. She will be missed.

Other than that, it was a fun trip. Later we roasted marshmallows by a fire and told ghost stories.

This specimen keys closely to Phidippus putnami, but at this size could it be some sort of mutant??





Happy Halloween! :-)