The Cutest Spider: Facts about Jumping Spider

 We all fear spider because they're so devastating and always comes with it's frightening 8 legs and 2 poisonous fangs. 

But is there any spider which is so cute that you can keep it as pet and spend time seeing it's behaviour! 

Yes! It's Jumping Spider.

 

Image source: Pinterest

They're very small and even can't pierce our skin with their small fangs.

Let's talk about them.

 

Can you find the me? 🕷

Jumping spiders: 

1. They are the biggest family (Salticidae) of Spiders.

2. Around 13% of all species of spiders are in Salticidae family. 

3. The family of Jumping Spiders have 600 described genera and 6000 described species as per report till 2019.

4. They have excellent eyesight which is one of the best among the Arthropods. 

Wanna know about a dangerous arthropod? Click here! 

5. They keeps their eye on the object they wanna follow and move their head where the object is moving. 

6. Their movement is very cute like whenever you move your finger infront of them they follow your fingers movement and may jump on it. Even when you go close to them, they look straight to you. And again, they may jump on you. But rarely they can cause any harm to you. 

7. When it comes to hunting 

They're pretty bold and intelligent hunters. They may even catch a pray which is a little bigger than them. They were also seen catching a grasshopper, which was double in size compared to the jumpy. They're so quick in 'jump & catch' process of hunting that they also are able to catch housefly, which you know really quick in escaping. 

They follow a very complex method of hunting like they don't encounter their prey by attacking or jumping straight on it whenever they notice. They fix their position first. The best thing is their eyes play the major role here. The eyes are sharp and capable to determine 3 dimensional position of the pray. How such a complex method of hunting is processed in their tiny brain is still a subject of research. 

8. They are easily distinguishable with their 

- shape: 

- and their big front eyes:

Also unlike other families of spiders, their head is roughly rectangular and flat at front and perpendicular to the plane of their motion. 

Head of other spider vs Jumping Spider

These are the disnguishable characteristics of Jumpy. 

How they Jump: 

Whent it's time to jump, they don't follow the traditional way of jumping used by grasshoppers or frogs (with the help of muscular hind legs). Because they don't have extensor muscles in major leg joints. They use hydraulic pressure generated in prosoma or cephalothorax for leg extension and jump. The steps are following-

1. They contract the muscles that join the upper and lower plates of prosoma. 

2. The contraction makes the blood (haemolyph) effectively and instantly flow towardsthe legs and increase the volume of blood there.

3. The instant flowof blood forces the legs to extend rapidly and bang! They launch themselves into air.

4. When they jump through air, they extend a silk rope, which remains sticked on the surface from where they jump. It is for the safety purpose, that if they land on any wrong surface or they think, "I should go back", they easily climb through the their safty silk rope. 

Know more about how they jump: Click here! 

You may heard about the cartoon "Lucas the spider", which is actually the animantion of Jumping spiders. 

Some species of jumping spiders are colourful and very cute. So, because of their behaviour, their cute jumping style, and various colours  they are sometimes called the Cutest Spiders. 

Cheers!