While the Monday Macrobug continues its official winter hiatus, we did have a fuzzy little jumping spider make an appearance in the house the other day:
Did you see the @$#%ing ladybug hiding there in the background?
Here’s a closer look at the spider:
Jumping spiders are my favorite spiders – they seem like little mammals relative to the bulbous/spiky shapes that characterizes the spiders that I instinctually find so repulsive. And their eyes are so big and brown! You can almost imagine this guy barking playfully and curling up for a little scritch below the chelicerae. A puppy sized jumping spider would make such a cuddly pet!
Jumping spiders really are different critters. I have nearly a dozen different versions in my yard near Seattle. I once watched a black and white striped, non-hairy, guy stalk a small mosquito on the underside of the eave of my house. After 4-5 minutes of creeping closer, the tiny arachnid leaped roughly 2 cm and made the kill. All of this unfolded upside down! He must have stood tall to get the jump on gravity. (no pun intended)
I once watched a black one run an intercept on a measuring caterpiller . It saw the worm and ran out to a point ahead of the path and waited for it to come to dinner.