The pirate is a cool cat

This teeny-tiny spider was climbing my wall last night.

Pirate spider, Mimetid sp.

She is about 3 or 4 mm. long (body only), and like all pirate spiders, has a comb of long spines on her front legs.

And she's wearing a cat face.

Meow!

The pirate spiders are all tiny, from 3 to 7 mm. long. And yet, their diet mainly consists of other spiders. Larger spiders, sometimes much larger.

To kill a large spider, "Kitty" bites him on a leg. Her venom, specifically suited for arachnids, kills him quickly. Then she eats him slowly, holding him with those spiny front legs, and sucking the juices out of one leg at a time; he's too big for one meal.

Crawling around under my desk and behind the furniture, looking for more spiders, I discovered many empty spider corpses. "Kitty" has been busy.

A couple of years ago, I found another of these here. The photos of this one were taken from a different angle, and she seems to be wearing sunglasses.

Cool cat!

The good people at BugGuide identified her for me.