Featherlegged Orb-weaver

UFO - Featherlegged Orb-weaver

This is the dorsal view of a female Featherlegged Orb-weaver spider. I found her under the stairs at my home.

She is nothing but a piece of dry leaf from a distance. In fact the colors and patterns on her was not visible to the eye since she was in a very dark corner. I was utterly shocked to see the patterns and textures on her. :-)

Her abdomen had bulged up considerably which I thought was normal for the species until I found her by the egg case this morning. :-D

This spider belongs to a family of non-venomous spiders. They lack of venom glands and they kill their prey by crushing with over 140 metres of thread!![wiki]

Size: 1 cm approx