About this photo:

This interesting spider was climbing on a post in the Hornsby Bend greenhouse on October 23, 2003 when I was serving as a mentor for an elementary school class. I had already told them to be on the lookout for spiders, and they were very helpful in locating them for me. (Their eyes are much better than mine!) This spider posed for me, allowing many photographs from various angles. Fortunately, two of them show the key feature for identifying this species, beyond the general coloring, that is. The pattern of the eyes is distinctive with two large eyes in front, and the others arranged in neat rows on the back of the head. If you look closely, you can see the two rows on the back of the head. The two large eyes on the front are visible in another photo.

Based on photos in Spiders & Scorpions of Texas, we can even identify this as a male.