"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthey don't care if you live deep in the woods or in the middle of the city spiders are everywhere and a lot of people find them terrifying I don't know I think these are pretty adorable little things whether you love spiders or absolutely hate them there are tons of spiders in your backyard right now and today we're going to peel back the curtain on their secret world if you're ready our journey starts right outside your door to a spider the world is massive where you and I don't think much of walking through our doors or past the outer walls of our houses every nook and cranny is a potential hiding spot for an eight-legged creature that slinks in the shadows forgotten Corners left unchecked start to accumulate the networks of silk that tell us that someone new has moved into the neighborhood if we take a look right here sheet webs just like this are probably one of the most common layers that spiders in your backyard would be using and this is the home of the funnel Weaver they sit deep inside a burrow this whole entire web Spirals and funnels into and they sit there and they just wait in the shadows for the most part A lot of these webs can look like basically no one's home but if an insect falls into this web and starts creating those vibrations they travel through these dense sheets deep into where the spider's hiding right in there and you can bet that spider will come out to investigate these phone Weavers are lightning fast some of the fastest spiders on the planet and some of the larger species actually have some of the most terrifying reputations of any spider in North America but the truth about them is that they're basically completely harmless and for the most part you're probably not even going to ever see them because of their tendency to stick these webs kind of in forgotten Corners it can be easy to assume that the largely unoccupied but sometimes like we're seeing right here the spider will make a rare appearance if food comes knocking while these webs are super super messy you've probably also seen the elaborate geometric webs of the orbweavers and my good friend Travis has done a ton of incredible work with those spiders I've always been fascinated and Amazed by orb weavers and there's a lot of variety within them most of us are very familiar with the Aron family which includes spiders like this one that make vertical planer spiral webs like we're used to seeing usually on the sides of buildings or on vegetation but there are some that make their webs horizontally some that live in cave environments and even some that don't possess Venom yet they all share this similar web architecture and just about everyone at some point has wondered how do they make these webs well it's quite a process but at least in orb weavers like this one it begins with one thread across the top then a center develops then a frame and some radials and finally a capture spiral only this spiral part of the web is sticky and there's quite a bit that goes into the design and the spider is actually making a lot of decisions about the size of the web the distance between the strands and the tension on every single strand if the prey in the area are very small they'll make the mesh size finer if the prey are larger they'll make it coarser allowing them to cover more area with the same length of capture spiral silk so there's more going on than just programmed instinct routines these spiders respond to changes around them in intelligent ways they do learn if their web keeps getting wrecked in one place they'll put it somewhere else but after that they're very polite and predictable you'll know where they are and they'll probably stay there for pretty much the whole season if they're catching enough food also some of these get big like the yellow garden spider our guia arantia or the golden silk orbweaver and they're among some of the most beautiful spiders I've seen scene the orb weaver pays special attention to its web every fine detail is perfectly crafted to serve not just as a net to capture its food but to be an extension of the spider's mind these webs literally help them understand their world it is not just their home or a tool their web is literally an expression of themselves we find orbweavers in our Gardens a lot but they're not the only spiders that think that your flower patches are a great place to set up camp I guarant toe you there are crab spiders lurking around too these guys are The Chameleons of the spider world and odds are you probably are walking past them all the time without even seeing them because they can change color to help blend in with the flowers that they're sitting on they're not like the last two spiders we've seen they're not building webs to catch their prey once they find a set of flowers to sit in they pretty much set up camp sit there and wait with those long legs extended out basically waiting for prey to come to them for the crab spider the flower is a big self-served dinner plate it's bright colors and sweet nectar bring all sorts of little flying insects in but little do they know that that meal of nectar is the last one they're going to eat despite their pretty much stationary Lifestyle the crab spider can move super fast when it wants to and those long front legs are perfect for snatching their prey biting it and inv venoma it they are the perfect Ambush h hunters and of course it is possible they might get the jump on you if you're out tending your flower garden but for the most part they're tiny and are extremely fast to drop off and Scuttle into the Shadows these timid spiders rely on their camouflage for basically most of their lives so once they're Disturbed you can pretty much bet they're not going to stand and fight they're going to disappear now as cool as their camouflage is there's actually in my opinion a much cooler assassin prowling your garden if you've ever felt watched when you're outside your house this is why the smartest of the arachnids the jumping spider is not only watching your every step the minute you open that door it also has the capacity to figure out who and what you are not only are they probably the cutest spiders in the world but jumping spiders are by far the most successful group of arachnids on the planet with over 8,000 species worldwide and because of that that means they've adapted to survive in all sorts of different habitats probably asking okay Spencer well my backyard's kind of small surely there's only one habitat there right let's actually take a look a single backyard can actually have tons of different habitats this bush looks like one object right but there's leaves there's branches and stuff deep in there and and there's actually Leaf flitter all along the around here each one of these tiny little changes in structure are actually what we call a micro habitat and jumping spiders have adapted to make use of all sorts of different microhabitats there are huge jumping spiders living in the canopy of trees weird camouflaged mediumsized ones living on the bark or even on wooden structures like your fence or your house and there are tiny cryptic even ant-like ones living in the leaf litter on the ground there's a lot of Variety in how these spiders look but they all generally have this kind of Blocky appearance with those big cute little eyes right in the front it's why I love them so much it's why the internet loves them so much and for even friends of mine that are deathly afraid of spiders they're one of the first groups that I introduced them to in order to help overcome that fear these spiders are active Hunters they're not building webs they're not sitting and waiting for prey to come to them they're actually tracking it down and that comes with some really crazy intelligence they're almost like cats with their Curious eyes scanning the environment around them watching for the tiniest signs of movement and once they see it they're on the prowl this canopy jumping spider sees a redheaded Bush Cricket on The Twig that she's on he hasn't seen her yet because her modeled appearance gives her incredible camouflage in this arboreal environment you can see she actually Wiggles her palps right in the front of her face as she calculates the distance to make her jump she misses and the cricket escapes but she's not discouraged this bush is full of other herbivores that she can pounce on the sort of calculated intelligence that we see from jumping spiders means they're actually a spider we can reason with not only are they not out to get us or likely to bite at all they're one that's actually kind of fun to interact with they'll sort of look at you and actually start to piece things together across all of the incredible varieties of jumping spiders that I've worked with every single one of them seems to have a unique and curious personality rather than sitting sitting there or acting all skittish they literally will explore you and get to know you and are probably one of the most amazing spiders in the world now these guys are cute but the deeper we get into the weeds the stranger the spiders in your backyard actually get further from the house more space and more cover means the spiders we find here have more to hide and would you believe there are giants hiding just feet from our doors if you live in certain parts of the world and you have dead trees like this around your house there's a good chance you might have huntsman spiders they're like a giant Elite version of the crab spider they have those same long front legs but they also have incredible speed and climbing ability throughout most of the tropics and even just warmer climates they are super super prevalent scuttling up all the trees bushes Rock faces even the walls of your house searching for just about anything they can overow power for most people who live in Huntsman range you'll probably never see them but I guarantee you they're there despite their giant size they can actually tuck away in all sorts of little tiny nooks and crannies where they wait for the veil of Darkness to fall they're not dangerously venomous and just like the tiny crab spiders they're more likely to run away and disappear into the Shadows than they are to stand and fight if you do happen to stumble onto them the biggest danger a huntsman really poses towards people is getting the jump on us so they could be dangerous to you if you have like a heart condition or something because even for someone like me if I get startled by a giant spider like that yeah I'm going to jump out of my skin but as big as these guys are there are even bigger even creepier spiders that Patrol the ground after dark if you've ever stepped outside at night you might have been greeted by tiny specks of light glittering at you from the grass you probably reassured yourself that it was just drops of Dew and nothing else but allow me to break that comfort those glints of light are the eyes of dozens if not hundreds of giant spiders wolf spiders a lot of people confuse these with tarantulas and you can see why they're these huge stocky spiders but they have those big old eyes right in front and like the jumping spiders the wolf spider has incredible Vision the way their Vision Works is kind of special they buy their time hiding underground waiting for Darkness to fall and then they emerge and this is where their vision is super super interesting unlike jumping spiders the wolf spider has a special membrane in the back of its eye that can amplify even tiny tiny amounts of light it's actually that membrane that's reflecting back at us when you shine your light at night so all those little do drops yeah they're actually the eyes of tons and tons of wolf spiders but it means that they can see incredibly well after dark that means any little prey items that are walking around on the forest floor or the ground of your backyard are kind of fair game for these guys the wolf spider is built powerfully because they are lightning quick that is an animal that is packed with muscle and Built For Speed they pounce on their prey grab it with those giant fangs and end its life pretty gnarly but they're actually another one of my favorite spiders because despite their large size and incredible speed they're sweethearts they are total sweethearts and just like the jumping spider they're actually kind of intelligent wolf spiders are one of the spiders that you can reason with you can put the spider at ease and handle it with no threat of being bitten they're big they're scary but they're gentle Giants and they're almost kind of like the the guard dogs patrolling the perimeter of your yard making sure no cockroaches or termites can invade your house and these guys are big but they're not the biggest spider that's lurking out there in your yard now check this out this has got to be the biggest tarantula I have ever seen the tarantula is probably the most recognizable of this group but even if you don't live in the range of true tarantulas the mallam morphs are kind of everywhere and I think you'd be surprised what's living in your yard right now the megamorphs are a secretive Bunch where the wolf spiders emerge after dark most of these primitive spiders will spend 90% or more of their lives underground lurking in their silk lined Burrows waiting for prey to announce itself for the megamorphs life is slow the females can live for decades so they're in no rush to move around any more than they need to with the more burrow restricted species they may only leave if disturbed by weather or predator and just like a bear awaken from its hibernation you can bet they aren't happy to be exposed in their threat pose you can see how different they are from other spiders their fangs fold down like those of a snake not a cross like scissors and their large chicer and heavy bodies reminded some scientist many years ago of a shrew which is where they got their name megamorph literally means shrew form and refers to the entire suborder of spiders most of them despite having skittish and defensive attitudes are harmless they'll put up a good show for you but their venom is no more than a Sting from a beer or wasp unless you live in Australia or certain parts of Africa and Asia tropical old world mallam morphs are occasionally equipped with some serious toxins so definitely be careful if you accidentally dig up a massive angry spider in those areas for the most part these behemoths will stay well out of the way content to stay in the darkness and comfort of their Burrows secretly living out their long lives in our backyards and the less they see of us the happier they are but as cryptic as these spiders are there are creepier things watching us from the Shadows there's a reason that the nephos family of spiders is known as the stealthy ground spiders one they're super fast and usually duck out of sight when they feel you coming so you don't see them that often two with the exception of a couple of obvious ones like the Eastern Parson spider here they can be really plainly marked making them really tricky to identify and tell apart from one another I have actually heard real arachnologists say that they sometimes have to just shrug and identify a neosd as an lb DJ Little Brown jobby within the spider Science World they've been regarded as sort of boring spiders but I think they might be more interesting than they get credit for these spinettes are the main indicator these long very cylindrical non-tapering spinettes usually indicate that a spider belongs to this family and they seem to make use of very specialized very elastic silk in their hunting methods which I think aren't that well understood and deserve a bit more study these aren't aggressive spiders but when people do encounter them they can sometimes spook people a bit with their speed and their unpredictable zigzag running as they madly try to flee but they're pretty good to have around and they provide great Pest Control both indoors and Outdoors gone as fast as they appeared these obscure little spiders are kind of everywhere but seem to only show up when they want to and for fleeting moments like tiny ground delling spirits but they're not the only creepy specters lurking in our yards and gardens I can't see her too well from this angle because they're so unbelievably camouflaged but right there is a green link spider now these spiders get their name from the way they hunt they don't use webs like your typical spiders they're only going to be building webs actually for protecting their egg sacks most of the time they're sitting waiting an ambush on pine trees like this petow flower stocks basically any plants with open air access that little flying insects going be zipping by and they'll sit there using that brilliant green coloration as perfect camouflage and if a butterfly or a wasp land or was zipped by the plant they're sitting on they can actually pounce like a cat and since they have all those bristly hairs and stuff they've received the nickname the link spider despite not having super big eyes they do have pretty good vision and these guys will use that Vision in tandem with those powerful legs to calculate the distance to jump and pounce on their prey might be asking spenc or are they are they related to jumping spiders no but they're actually somewhat closely related to wolf spiders this time of year the link spiders will be riding out the end of their lifespan guarding their eggs and they'll do that sitting in these little net webs they build they actually have a really cool defensive strategy that not a lot of other spiders share some of these link spiders have been known to be able to shoot venom out of their fangs it's not like the spitting spiders where they spray web to immobilize their prey it's almost more like a spider version of a spitting cobra it's full liquid Venom that they can spray to kind of deter enemies from coming to their young probably asking Spencer you know is this a is this a dangerous spider should I be worried about this and the answer is no even with that spitting ability I've I've only read about it I've never actually seen it in person and I'm not even sure how I could get a link spider to exhibit that behavior it's pretty pretty wild they're also not known to have very serious bites they are really really special little creatures there and absolutely just breathtaking to look at beautiful solid green may not have known this but green is actually my favorite color so I might just I might have some bias towards the spider but been watching the channel for a long time you also know I really love camouflaged creatures and these guys take camouflage to the next level among spiders like a hybrid of the jumping spiders wolf spiders and crab spiders the link spider bides its time hunting large flying prey in the plants of our Gardens its silent skull-like face watching our every move while hiding in plain sight a completely cryptic spider you'd think this would be the most secretive spider in your backyard but you'd be wrong there are more giants still and they only emerge under the darkness of night have a look at that spider now I've seen tarantulas before so I can't say this is the largest spider I've ever seen anymore that is the largest true spider I've ever seen these guys are huge and when I first moved to the southeast I was kind of confused because when I found one I thought I was looking at a tarantula and I was pretty sure tarantulas didn't range here but just like the wolf spider these are not tarantulas but they are big spiders in most of the US the fishing spider kind of occupies the role that a huntsman spider would be occupying in other parts of the world they're hiding in the cracks of dead trees they're hiding in Old piles of wood or way up in the canopies of like Hardwoods waiting for Darkness to fall and once they emerge they're kind of like centuries their legs are splay out picking up all kinds of vibrations from their environment where for an orb weaver or a funnel Weaver their web is an extension of their nervous system the sensory hairs on the legs of a fishing spider mean that the immediate environment is an extension of its nervous system they can pick up the finest vibrations in the leaves they're sitting on that let them know that prey is nearby and like the huntsman spider they may look pretty stationary but these massive spiders can move Lightning Fast taking down even some of the fastest and most venomous flying insects the fishing spider is pretty skittish they're fairly difficult to handle if you even attempt to handle them and generally speaking this is a spider that wants to be left alone they're not going to bite you but due to their sheer speed they're extremely fast to just jump off and disappear into the night these giant spiders are more more than enough to make most people's skin crawl but rest assured they're really just looking for bugs they're not looking for you and that goes for pretty much all of the spiders that might be in your backyard they may have a whole host of weird appearances but those appearances are just there to help them be better at catching the bugs that they prefer to eat even though I've studied them for quite a while now I'm still astonished by the sheer diversity and variety of spiders and I think that's because they occupy so many different habitats with each habitat demanding different adaptations for instance in drier forests or around human structures most insects are flying from point A to point B thus we see a lot of orb weavers with these vertical webs but over Still Water like a pond we see these long jawed orb weavers the tetrads making horizontal orb webs because here insects are often moving up and down on and off the water's surface these Golden Rod crab spiders sit in wait camouflaged in flower patches relying on pollen and nectar to attract prey so they don't make a web down in the leaf litter habitats on the forest floor we can see some more of these active Hunters the environment around us actually shapes spiders into the different varieties that we see today even though they might creep us out the ways that different spiders look can actually give us Clues as to the lives they're living out in the secret world that surrounds us every single day and whether it's the giant tarantulas or the tiny little orb weavers none of them are out to get us these spiders are just simple creatures trying to make their way in the universe no different than you or me and the crazy adaptations and Lifestyles that we see in these spiders are the best ways they've learned how to do that but spiders aren't the only incredibly successful group that you're probably running into in your backyard there's a heck of a lot of insects out there too and what if I told you that quite a few of them were actually venomous if you want to discover the most venomous insects in your backyard check out this video right here hope to see you there but until next time don't forget to get outside and find your own adventurethey don't care if you live deep in the woods or in the middle of the city spiders are everywhere and a lot of people find them terrifying I don't know I think these are pretty adorable little things whether you love spiders or absolutely hate them there are tons of spiders in your backyard right now and today we're going to peel back the curtain on their secret world if you're ready our journey starts right outside your door to a spider the world is massive where you and I don't think much of walking through our doors or past the outer walls of our houses every nook and cranny is a potential hiding spot for an eight-legged creature that slinks in the shadows forgotten Corners left unchecked start to accumulate the networks of silk that tell us that someone new has moved into the neighborhood if we take a look right here sheet webs just like this are probably one of the most common layers that spiders in your backyard would be using and this is the home of the funnel Weaver they sit deep inside a burrow this whole entire web Spirals and funnels into and they sit there and they just wait in the shadows for the most part A lot of these webs can look like basically no one's home but if an insect falls into this web and starts creating those vibrations they travel through these dense sheets deep into where the spider's hiding right in there and you can bet that spider will come out to investigate these phone Weavers are lightning fast some of the fastest spiders on the planet and some of the larger species actually have some of the most terrifying reputations of any spider in North America but the truth about them is that they're basically completely harmless and for the most part you're probably not even going to ever see them because of their tendency to stick these webs kind of in forgotten Corners it can be easy to assume that the largely unoccupied but sometimes like we're seeing right here the spider will make a rare appearance if food comes knocking while these webs are super super messy you've probably also seen the elaborate geometric webs of the orbweavers and my good friend Travis has done a ton of incredible work with those spiders I've always been fascinated and Amazed by orb weavers and there's a lot of variety within them most of us are very familiar with the Aron family which includes spiders like this one that make vertical planer spiral webs like we're used to seeing usually on the sides of buildings or on vegetation but there are some that make their webs horizontally some that live in cave environments and even some that don't possess Venom yet they all share this similar web architecture and just about everyone at some point has wondered how do they make these webs well it's quite a process but at least in orb weavers like this one it begins with one thread across the top then a center develops then a frame and some radials and finally a capture spiral only this spiral part of the web is sticky and there's quite a bit that goes into the design and the spider is actually making a lot of decisions about the size of the web the distance between the strands and the tension on every single strand if the prey in the area are very small they'll make the mesh size finer if the prey are larger they'll make it coarser allowing them to cover more area with the same length of capture spiral silk so there's more going on than just programmed instinct routines these spiders respond to changes around them in intelligent ways they do learn if their web keeps getting wrecked in one place they'll put it somewhere else but after that they're very polite and predictable you'll know where they are and they'll probably stay there for pretty much the whole season if they're catching enough food also some of these get big like the yellow garden spider our guia arantia or the golden silk orbweaver and they're among some of the most beautiful spiders I've seen scene the orb weaver pays special attention to its web every fine detail is perfectly crafted to serve not just as a net to capture its food but to be an extension of the spider's mind these webs literally help them understand their world it is not just their home or a tool their web is literally an expression of themselves we find orbweavers in our Gardens a lot but they're not the only spiders that think that your flower patches are a great place to set up camp I guarant toe you there are crab spiders lurking around too these guys are The Chameleons of the spider world and odds are you probably are walking past them all the time without even seeing them because they can change color to help blend in with the flowers that they're sitting on they're not like the last two spiders we've seen they're not building webs to catch their prey once they find a set of flowers to sit in they pretty much set up camp sit there and wait with those long legs extended out basically waiting for prey to come to them for the crab spider the flower is a big self-served dinner plate it's bright colors and sweet nectar bring all sorts of little flying insects in but little do they know that that meal of nectar is the last one they're going to eat despite their pretty much stationary Lifestyle the crab spider can move super fast when it wants to and those long front legs are perfect for snatching their prey biting it and inv venoma it they are the perfect Ambush h hunters and of course it is possible they might get the jump on you if you're out tending your flower garden but for the most part they're tiny and are extremely fast to drop off and Scuttle into the Shadows these timid spiders rely on their camouflage for basically most of their lives so once they're Disturbed you can pretty much bet they're not going to stand and fight they're going to disappear now as cool as their camouflage is there's actually in my opinion a much cooler assassin prowling your garden if you've ever felt watched when you're outside your house this is why the smartest of the arachnids the jumping spider is not only watching your every step the minute you open that door it also has the capacity to figure out who and what you are not only are they probably the cutest spiders in the world but jumping spiders are by far the most successful group of arachnids on the planet with over 8,000 species worldwide and because of that that means they've adapted to survive in all sorts of different habitats probably asking okay Spencer well my backyard's kind of small surely there's only one habitat there right let's actually take a look a single backyard can actually have tons of different habitats this bush looks like one object right but there's leaves there's branches and stuff deep in there and and there's actually Leaf flitter all along the around here each one of these tiny little changes in structure are actually what we call a micro habitat and jumping spiders have adapted to make use of all sorts of different microhabitats there are huge jumping spiders living in the canopy of trees weird camouflaged mediumsized ones living on the bark or even on wooden structures like your fence or your house and there are tiny cryptic even ant-like ones living in the leaf litter on the ground there's a lot of Variety in how these spiders look but they all generally have this kind of Blocky appearance with those big cute little eyes right in the front it's why I love them so much it's why the internet loves them so much and for even friends of mine that are deathly afraid of spiders they're one of the first groups that I introduced them to in order to help overcome that fear these spiders are active Hunters they're not building webs they're not sitting and waiting for prey to come to them they're actually tracking it down and that comes with some really crazy intelligence they're almost like cats with their Curious eyes scanning the environment around them watching for the tiniest signs of movement and once they see it they're on the prowl this canopy jumping spider sees a redheaded Bush Cricket on The Twig that she's on he hasn't seen her yet because her modeled appearance gives her incredible camouflage in this arboreal environment you can see she actually Wiggles her palps right in the front of her face as she calculates the distance to make her jump she misses and the cricket escapes but she's not discouraged this bush is full of other herbivores that she can pounce on the sort of calculated intelligence that we see from jumping spiders means they're actually a spider we can reason with not only are they not out to get us or likely to bite at all they're one that's actually kind of fun to interact with they'll sort of look at you and actually start to piece things together across all of the incredible varieties of jumping spiders that I've worked with every single one of them seems to have a unique and curious personality rather than sitting sitting there or acting all skittish they literally will explore you and get to know you and are probably one of the most amazing spiders in the world now these guys are cute but the deeper we get into the weeds the stranger the spiders in your backyard actually get further from the house more space and more cover means the spiders we find here have more to hide and would you believe there are giants hiding just feet from our doors if you live in certain parts of the world and you have dead trees like this around your house there's a good chance you might have huntsman spiders they're like a giant Elite version of the crab spider they have those same long front legs but they also have incredible speed and climbing ability throughout most of the tropics and even just warmer climates they are super super prevalent scuttling up all the trees bushes Rock faces even the walls of your house searching for just about anything they can overow power for most people who live in Huntsman range you'll probably never see them but I guarantee you they're there despite their giant size they can actually tuck away in all sorts of little tiny nooks and crannies where they wait for the veil of Darkness to fall they're not dangerously venomous and just like the tiny crab spiders they're more likely to run away and disappear into the Shadows than they are to stand and fight if you do happen to stumble onto them the biggest danger a huntsman really poses towards people is getting the jump on us so they could be dangerous to you if you have like a heart condition or something because even for someone like me if I get startled by a giant spider like that yeah I'm going to jump out of my skin but as big as these guys are there are even bigger even creepier spiders that Patrol the ground after dark if you've ever stepped outside at night you might have been greeted by tiny specks of light glittering at you from the grass you probably reassured yourself that it was just drops of Dew and nothing else but allow me to break that comfort those glints of light are the eyes of dozens if not hundreds of giant spiders wolf spiders a lot of people confuse these with tarantulas and you can see why they're these huge stocky spiders but they have those big old eyes right in front and like the jumping spiders the wolf spider has incredible Vision the way their Vision Works is kind of special they buy their time hiding underground waiting for Darkness to fall and then they emerge and this is where their vision is super super interesting unlike jumping spiders the wolf spider has a special membrane in the back of its eye that can amplify even tiny tiny amounts of light it's actually that membrane that's reflecting back at us when you shine your light at night so all those little do drops yeah they're actually the eyes of tons and tons of wolf spiders but it means that they can see incredibly well after dark that means any little prey items that are walking around on the forest floor or the ground of your backyard are kind of fair game for these guys the wolf spider is built powerfully because they are lightning quick that is an animal that is packed with muscle and Built For Speed they pounce on their prey grab it with those giant fangs and end its life pretty gnarly but they're actually another one of my favorite spiders because despite their large size and incredible speed they're sweethearts they are total sweethearts and just like the jumping spider they're actually kind of intelligent wolf spiders are one of the spiders that you can reason with you can put the spider at ease and handle it with no threat of being bitten they're big they're scary but they're gentle Giants and they're almost kind of like the the guard dogs patrolling the perimeter of your yard making sure no cockroaches or termites can invade your house and these guys are big but they're not the biggest spider that's lurking out there in your yard now check this out this has got to be the biggest tarantula I have ever seen the tarantula is probably the most recognizable of this group but even if you don't live in the range of true tarantulas the mallam morphs are kind of everywhere and I think you'd be surprised what's living in your yard right now the megamorphs are a secretive Bunch where the wolf spiders emerge after dark most of these primitive spiders will spend 90% or more of their lives underground lurking in their silk lined Burrows waiting for prey to announce itself for the megamorphs life is slow the females can live for decades so they're in no rush to move around any more than they need to with the more burrow restricted species they may only leave if disturbed by weather or predator and just like a bear awaken from its hibernation you can bet they aren't happy to be exposed in their threat pose you can see how different they are from other spiders their fangs fold down like those of a snake not a cross like scissors and their large chicer and heavy bodies reminded some scientist many years ago of a shrew which is where they got their name megamorph literally means shrew form and refers to the entire suborder of spiders most of them despite having skittish and defensive attitudes are harmless they'll put up a good show for you but their venom is no more than a Sting from a beer or wasp unless you live in Australia or certain parts of Africa and Asia tropical old world mallam morphs are occasionally equipped with some serious toxins so definitely be careful if you accidentally dig up a massive angry spider in those areas for the most part these behemoths will stay well out of the way content to stay in the darkness and comfort of their Burrows secretly living out their long lives in our backyards and the less they see of us the happier they are but as cryptic as these spiders are there are creepier things watching us from the Shadows there's a reason that the nephos family of spiders is known as the stealthy ground spiders one they're super fast and usually duck out of sight when they feel you coming so you don't see them that often two with the exception of a couple of obvious ones like the Eastern Parson spider here they can be really plainly marked making them really tricky to identify and tell apart from one another I have actually heard real arachnologists say that they sometimes have to just shrug and identify a neosd as an lb DJ Little Brown jobby within the spider Science World they've been regarded as sort of boring spiders but I think they might be more interesting than they get credit for these spinettes are the main indicator these long very cylindrical non-tapering spinettes usually indicate that a spider belongs to this family and they seem to make use of very specialized very elastic silk in their hunting methods which I think aren't that well understood and deserve a bit more study these aren't aggressive spiders but when people do encounter them they can sometimes spook people a bit with their speed and their unpredictable zigzag running as they madly try to flee but they're pretty good to have around and they provide great Pest Control both indoors and Outdoors gone as fast as they appeared these obscure little spiders are kind of everywhere but seem to only show up when they want to and for fleeting moments like tiny ground delling spirits but they're not the only creepy specters lurking in our yards and gardens I can't see her too well from this angle because they're so unbelievably camouflaged but right there is a green link spider now these spiders get their name from the way they hunt they don't use webs like your typical spiders they're only going to be building webs actually for protecting their egg sacks most of the time they're sitting waiting an ambush on pine trees like this petow flower stocks basically any plants with open air access that little flying insects going be zipping by and they'll sit there using that brilliant green coloration as perfect camouflage and if a butterfly or a wasp land or was zipped by the plant they're sitting on they can actually pounce like a cat and since they have all those bristly hairs and stuff they've received the nickname the link spider despite not having super big eyes they do have pretty good vision and these guys will use that Vision in tandem with those powerful legs to calculate the distance to jump and pounce on their prey might be asking spenc or are they are they related to jumping spiders no but they're actually somewhat closely related to wolf spiders this time of year the link spiders will be riding out the end of their lifespan guarding their eggs and they'll do that sitting in these little net webs they build they actually have a really cool defensive strategy that not a lot of other spiders share some of these link spiders have been known to be able to shoot venom out of their fangs it's not like the spitting spiders where they spray web to immobilize their prey it's almost more like a spider version of a spitting cobra it's full liquid Venom that they can spray to kind of deter enemies from coming to their young probably asking Spencer you know is this a is this a dangerous spider should I be worried about this and the answer is no even with that spitting ability I've I've only read about it I've never actually seen it in person and I'm not even sure how I could get a link spider to exhibit that behavior it's pretty pretty wild they're also not known to have very serious bites they are really really special little creatures there and absolutely just breathtaking to look at beautiful solid green may not have known this but green is actually my favorite color so I might just I might have some bias towards the spider but been watching the channel for a long time you also know I really love camouflaged creatures and these guys take camouflage to the next level among spiders like a hybrid of the jumping spiders wolf spiders and crab spiders the link spider bides its time hunting large flying prey in the plants of our Gardens its silent skull-like face watching our every move while hiding in plain sight a completely cryptic spider you'd think this would be the most secretive spider in your backyard but you'd be wrong there are more giants still and they only emerge under the darkness of night have a look at that spider now I've seen tarantulas before so I can't say this is the largest spider I've ever seen anymore that is the largest true spider I've ever seen these guys are huge and when I first moved to the southeast I was kind of confused because when I found one I thought I was looking at a tarantula and I was pretty sure tarantulas didn't range here but just like the wolf spider these are not tarantulas but they are big spiders in most of the US the fishing spider kind of occupies the role that a huntsman spider would be occupying in other parts of the world they're hiding in the cracks of dead trees they're hiding in Old piles of wood or way up in the canopies of like Hardwoods waiting for Darkness to fall and once they emerge they're kind of like centuries their legs are splay out picking up all kinds of vibrations from their environment where for an orb weaver or a funnel Weaver their web is an extension of their nervous system the sensory hairs on the legs of a fishing spider mean that the immediate environment is an extension of its nervous system they can pick up the finest vibrations in the leaves they're sitting on that let them know that prey is nearby and like the huntsman spider they may look pretty stationary but these massive spiders can move Lightning Fast taking down even some of the fastest and most venomous flying insects the fishing spider is pretty skittish they're fairly difficult to handle if you even attempt to handle them and generally speaking this is a spider that wants to be left alone they're not going to bite you but due to their sheer speed they're extremely fast to just jump off and disappear into the night these giant spiders are more more than enough to make most people's skin crawl but rest assured they're really just looking for bugs they're not looking for you and that goes for pretty much all of the spiders that might be in your backyard they may have a whole host of weird appearances but those appearances are just there to help them be better at catching the bugs that they prefer to eat even though I've studied them for quite a while now I'm still astonished by the sheer diversity and variety of spiders and I think that's because they occupy so many different habitats with each habitat demanding different adaptations for instance in drier forests or around human structures most insects are flying from point A to point B thus we see a lot of orb weavers with these vertical webs but over Still Water like a pond we see these long jawed orb weavers the tetrads making horizontal orb webs because here insects are often moving up and down on and off the water's surface these Golden Rod crab spiders sit in wait camouflaged in flower patches relying on pollen and nectar to attract prey so they don't make a web down in the leaf litter habitats on the forest floor we can see some more of these active Hunters the environment around us actually shapes spiders into the different varieties that we see today even though they might creep us out the ways that different spiders look can actually give us Clues as to the lives they're living out in the secret world that surrounds us every single day and whether it's the giant tarantulas or the tiny little orb weavers none of them are out to get us these spiders are just simple creatures trying to make their way in the universe no different than you or me and the crazy adaptations and Lifestyles that we see in these spiders are the best ways they've learned how to do that but spiders aren't the only incredibly successful group that you're probably running into in your backyard there's a heck of a lot of insects out there too and what if I told you that quite a few of them were actually venomous if you want to discover the most venomous insects in your backyard check out this video right here hope to see you there but until next time don't forget to get outside and find your own adventure\n"