Dog Days Spider Fest #1

I know it's the Dog Days when bits of fly carcass begin to pile up under the electric fan that runs non-stop from May through October in the window of my poorly insulated, flat roofed kitchen. So I'm happy to celebrate the fly-eating spiders of summer. This one is a male Pantropical jumper, Plexippus paykulli, and was discovered scampering across the stove top on a recent humid morning faintly reminiscent of somewhere tropical. He's a striking spider with high-contrast stripes, large size, and amazingly quick and feisty movements. I captured him in a Trader Joe's chocolate-covered espresso bean container for observation.