This orange spider is the Rusty Wandering Spider. It sometimes found in banana shipments from Central America.

Wandering in our Plantain

I found this orange wandering spider while cleaning our plantain. It secreted a web like substance and it ate the gecko that we fed it. It is not dangerous to humans. Even a bite can only elicit a small, numb pain. Many hobbyists keep this spider as a pet and there is a fairly large business in captive breeding.

Males send out communication in the form of a vibration. Females have been found to search for the longer auditory notes rather than the loudest or deepest. An average emitted tone lasts about 20 seconds.

This spider is often confused with the Brazilian Wandering Spider whose bite can be deadly. The difference (in case you ever come across one of these) is that this spiders underside is white with black dots.

Making the Photo

Barry used both sides of a purple elephant ear leaf plant to accentuate the orange hairs. The spider was very quick so we laid out several leaves all in a row so when the spider ran he was still in the correct background.

Barry used a wide lens at a distance of about 6 inches from the subject.
This was shot in the natural day light.