Jumping Spiders: The Gateway Spider

Photo source: Patrick Zephyr Nature Photography

It’s hard to see a spider past all of its legs. What’s with all the legs, anyway, and why does it need so many eyes? We often fear spiders for many reasons:

1. They can bite (but so can we!)

2. Their legs are hairy (mine, too!), and

3. They run funny (hate to break it to you...)

Maybe you have more in common with a spider than you might have thought. Let’s take a look at the charismatic arachnid who’s been trending on the interwebs and stealing all of our hearts by surprise: the jumping spider.

Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) have big doe eyes ranging in color from brown to green to purple, and their bodies typically exhibit flashy iridescence or teddy bear-like fuzz. You’ll often see them scaling brick walls, climbing wooden fences, or joining you for lunch on your patio table. Jumping spiders have the best sight out of all the spiders, so they appreciate having a wide, flat field of vision to spot a tasty fruit fly. Did you know jumping spiders can see details clearly from 12 inches away, and they have color vision like us?

Fun fact: most spiders cannot see details or perceive color – at most, they can sense changes in lighting, similar to if you close your eyes and hover your hand side to side in front of your face. This poor vision is why many spiders build webs to catch their food or to detect movement around them.

Hunting Strategies

Jumping spiders differ from web-builders like the yellow garden spider or ambush predators like the wolf spider, who waits for prey to brush their legs. Instead, they actively hunt insects like a lion prowling quietly in the savannah. Their bodies rest low to the ground, legs tucked close, as they move millimeter by millimeter toward their target. Then, they use their spinnerets to tether a safety rope of web to a surface and pounce for a meal well-earned.

Jumping spiders can devise new hunting strategies based on previous experience to craft the most pristine routine. These little arachnids were recently deemed by scientists as the most cognitively intelligent organism of their size! Additionally, new technology shows jumping spiders may have the ability to dream, as they demonstrate rapid eye movement (REM) in their resting state.

Mating Rituals

Courtship displays by these species have been compared to the artful displays of Birds of Paradise. Males will eye a beautiful female sitting across the twig. She will stare back, determining if he will be a dinner date, or just dinner. Rhythmically, he will raise his front arms straight into the air, wave them side to side, and dance toward her with his abdomen pointed upward. If he successfully romances the female, the male spider will get to pass on his genetics to his offspring and run away without a scrape. If not, he may actually turn into her next meal!

The next time you see a jumping spider moving robotically across a balcony railing, stop to observe its head tilting left and right with endless curiosity, and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a front-row seat to a dazzling courtship dance.

Don’t end the love at our new jumping friends! There is beauty to be discovered in an orb weaver's web – a geometrical masterpiece of architecture; a widow’s hourglass –  a reminder that time should be well spent; or a recluse’s violin – proof that the volume of ten violins is stronger than one alone. Let jumping spiders be the gateway that connects your interest to all other spiders, all the leggier.

For more information, contact the Environmental Services Department at enviro@thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov or 281-210-3800.