One spider looks like a lime green popsicle with tree twigs for legs.

One spider has elegant brown legs, a burnished ebony torso and a bite that can kill.

Still another spider looks like, well, bird droppings.

Welcome to the wonderful -- if not creepy-- world of Alabama spiders.

AL.com is pleased to bring you this photographic slideshow of 58 spiders common to Alabama in collaboration with Legacy, Partners in Environmental Education. The environmental nonprofit has trained more than 3,000 Alabama teachers and provided more than $2 million in grants to schools and other organizations since its inception in 1992.

(RELATED: Snakes of Alabama: How to identify all 50 species)

The spider images on this AL.com gallery are available from Legacy in poster form by going to the "For Educators" tab on group's website at www.legacyenved.org.

"With the arrival of spring, comes the arrival of all kinds of biting and stinging insects -- and, of course the spiders," said W. Mike Howell, retired Samford biologist and spider expert. "It is not surprising that 30 percent of people in the U. S. have some degree of arachnophobia--a real fear of spiders. One way to dispel this fear is to educate oneself on spiders."

Mike Howell checking areas outside a house for spiders. (Mike Oliver)

The photos are the work of Howell and colleague Ronald Jenkins, who is now deceased. They published together the definitive photographic guide in 2004 called "Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide" from which the photo captions on this photo gallery were derived.

Most of the spiders identified here as Alabama spiders are indigenous to other Southeastern states as well.

Legacy has 12 posters in all, including ones depicting Alabama native birds, trees, fishes and butterflies, among others. The posters are available free to Alabama residents only (1 of each item per customer).

Legacy's main source of support is through the sale of Legacy's "Protect Our Environment" auto license tags for an additional $50. Of that, $48.75 of the additional goes back to the organization for things like grants, scholarships and teacher workshops.

So enjoy the 58 spiders in the slideshow.

Take a look at the spitting spider. It immobilizes its prey with sticky sputum; Or the lime green lynx spider with its twiggy looking legs; or the highly venomous but shy brown recluse; or the bolas spider that appears wet as if it were a fresh bird dropping.

Or take a gander at the bright red hourglass on the highly venomous black widow and compare to a similar marking on its cousin, the brown widow.

But don't panic, the highly venomous spiders are in the minority.

"We have approximately 1,000 species of spiders in Alabama," Howell said. "And, of these, only three species are highly venomous: black widow, brown widow, and brown recluse."

You should seek medical attention after being bitten by one of those, however, many times the sting is no worse than a yellow jacket or wasp, he said.

Howell said the more you get to know about spiders, the more you can appreciate what's good about the eight-legged creatures.

"Spider webs capture hundreds of thousands of insects in Alabama each day--stinging and biting insects such as bees, wasps, and mosquitoes," Howell noted.