Spiders

With the beautiful weather I couldn't resist a walk around the neighborhood with my camera. I didn't even make it out of our parking area before finding my first subjects - small spiders on the stucco wall of the garage. I spotted this small (~ 1/4 inch) Zebra Jumping Spider and took a few shots before realizing it was stalking a small moth. It slowly approached the moth and then when within range, jumped the final distance to capture the moth.

Notice the big forward looking pair of eyes, good for binocular vision for hunting.

I also spotted several of what I think are Running Crab Spiders (Philodromus), possibly Eurasian. The first black one is a male, and the other is a female.

Last but not least, I spotted this Cross Orbweaver on its web in the sunshine.

Curiously, all of these are introduced species. Why would they be more common than the native spiders? It's not surprising that they get carried between continents. But why are foreign ones common here? Why aren't Canadian spiders common in Europe, for example?