It’s not that I’ve never seen a jumping spider before. I see them in our house periodically throughout the year; it’s just that they are so drab! After seeing macro photos of jumping spiders, some of which were amazingly colorful, I knew it was time for me to go on an “expedition” outside in the garden.
Well, it only took a week or so in May to find a colorful one. I was able to capture it and bring it inside, not only to get a better look, but also to try to get some photos. Success!
It was a Habronattus americanus. I returned it to its “homeland” after the photo session.
Now I know that all of you Nature Friend readers already know that spiders have eight legs, two body parts, spinnerets, chelicerae (fangs), six or eight eyes, and pedipalps, but I thought I’d list them anyway! The question is, “How do you tell jumping spiders apart from other spiders?”
First of all, speaking very generally, there are two main groups of spiders—ones that catch their prey with a web, and those that hunt for their prey. Those that hunt are further divided into ambush hunters, like crab spiders, and active hunters. Jumping spiders are active hunters.
Secondly, jumping spiders jump! But, perhaps the best way to distinguish them is by their eyes. They have eight eyes, two of which are much bigger than the others.
Interestingly, although jumping spiders don’t make a web for catching prey, the female makes a nest out of the silk. They can make a silk “bungee” cord to use as an anchor just before jumping.
Jumpers range in size from about 3 mm up to 20 mm, and females are generally larger than the males.
Oftentimes I would find my little jumper friend in the zinnia patch, but a couple weeks later there was a different one there.
It was whitish with a few small darker markings. I got some shots of it and later identified it as a female H. americanus. Jumping spiders are dimorphic; that is, males and females look different from each other.
Although H. americanus does not have a common name, the genus Habronattus is commonly known as the paradise spiders. Why? Because the males perform a very elaborate courtship dance that must have reminded a spider specialist of the courtship dances of the bird-of-paradise found on New Guinea and some surrounding islands. I have not seen the dance of my jumper friend yet, but I can just imagine him waving those bright red “pom pom” pedipalps around trying to impress a female!
This was not the end of my quest, however. Later in June, a flash of red caught my eye by the railing of our back deck. Suddenly it jumped out into the open and onto a nearby trellis. Wow! It had a bright red abdomen and shiny, metallic green chelicerae. It was a Phidippus johnsoni, also known as the red-backed jumping spider. Again, I captured it for a photo session, and this one turned out to be quite friendly. It jumped onto my finger and crawled up my arm. Soon I was eyeball to eyeball with the cute little critter!
Later, as I released Mr. Red-backed, I spotted not one, but two others crawling on the side of the house! Two weeks later I found a female in the raspberries with two missing front legs. Interestingly, God created many spiders with the ability to regenerate missing appendages over a period of time as they molt while growing.
In September on a rather cool afternoon, God brought one more colorful jumper my way. It was on a fence post when it obligingly jumped right into my jar for another successful photo shoot. This time it was a Phidippus purpuratus, also known as the marbled purple jumping spider. Those green eyes and metallic green chelicerae are captivating!
Some people have the attitude that “The only good spider is a dead spider.” But, except for a few poisonous species, most are very important ecologically. Jumpers feed on many insects, some harmful to our garden plants, which helps to keep those populations under control. And sometimes the spiders become food for other animals. I’ve seen house wrens with spiders in their bills to feed to their nestlings. I also once saw a photo of a mud dauber nest that a biologist had cut open on the side to expose seven or eight jumpers (all of the same species!) to serve as food for a developing mud dauber larva!
These were not the only jumpers I saw. The others, although not colorful, had distinct markings that made them interesting. One was the zebra jumper.
It was a fun summer and a very successful quest. I also saw many other kinds of spiders and insects, some colorful and some not.
Here are some suggestions if you want to go on your own quest. First, go out at different times of day. Secondly, be patient! Many times I would go out and, at first glance, nothing was around. But if I stayed in one spot for several minutes, invariably, something would show up.
When you observe God’s created organisms, like spiders, it’s easy to see that they are so intricate in structure, so amazingly complex in function, and so perfectly designed. Only God can do that!
