Spider

Not quite. Harvestman. (Opilones) Spiders have two distinct body parts; harvestmen have no break between the abdomen and the head.

But people scream when they see her as if she were a spider :)

They are beautiful and practically everywhere now. They hide so wonderfully on the leaves and I suspect I pass by dozens of them for every one I see. Most stay very still and let me get off a shot while a minority run away from the camera like graceful dancers. This one posed better than I could have asked for as if she was ready to leap twenty feet into the air (although it is probably just as well that didn't happen).

About leaping twenty feet into the air; I don't scream when I see a spider; I run for my camera. And I'm not worried about bites, not here in the BC Lower Mainland. But let one of these little things suddenly jump my way, and I yelp and flinch back. A silly thing to do; I've lost some good shots that way. But I can't seem to cure myself of it.

Maybe it's some training from early in my childhood; those habits are hard to break.

At the tail end of a path that I walk is a thick, weeded area full of downed trees and high-growing brush and, if moist out, a swampy consistency underfoot. A few weeks ago I flipped some bark, looking for goodies, to find a black snake hiding. It stayed perfectly still and, not accepting this, I'm not terribly proud to say i gently poked the guy with a stick until he slithered off.

Ever since then, when I get to that point in the trail (where, really, the trail falls apart and there is only growth), I look down warily, knowing that the black snake couldn't hurt me even if he wanted to, but also wondering if he is lying in wait for my return with his own stick to do some poking.

Sometimes there is no accounting for irrational fears, as comical as they may be.