Jumping Spiders - Hunting Superstars!

Many of you reading this might have a fear of these creatures and if you haven’t heard of this specific family I’m going to be talking about today you maybe inline for a few extra nightmares.

Today I’m going to be talking about spiders or more specifically Jumping Spiders or spiders which are part of the family Salticidae. These are an amazing group of arachnids which contains more than 5800 different described species, which makes up around 13% of all spider species. They are found almost globally in tropical forests, mountain ranges and intertidal zones, with the only exceptions being Greenland and the Antarctic.

One of the things which sets jumping spiders apart from

other spider species is the positioning of their eyes, jumping spiders like every spider has 8 pairs of eyes but unlike other spiders the majority of these eyes are mounted facing forward on their heads. This sounds rather simple and common however what it allows is extremely important. With forward facing eyes jumping spiders are able to get a decent idea of distance due to their eyes providing depth perception between themselves and other objects. This is important for jumping spiders as unlike other groups of spiders they are not a sit and wait predators, they actually go out and hunt for their prey. They are active the most during daylight hours due to their reliance on their eyes for hunting.

 As it is apparent in their name jumping spiders actually pounce on their prey. They achieve this by use of a weird internal hydraulic system, as instead of having muscles in their legs they use pressure to extend their legs. This novel method of jumping has allowed some of these spiders to be able to jump or pounce up to 50 times their own body length. This is extremely impressive as they can range from sizes of 1-22mm.

As mentioned jumping spiders don’t actually use webs to capture their prey and so this leaves them with an issue. Once they have successfully managed to capture a prey item they only have limited time to subdue them before they escape. The jumping spiders solution to this issue is that they have developed fast-acting venom which will almost instantly incapacitate their prey. You don’t have to personally worry about this however as due to the fact that these prey items are so small that only people who have an allergic reaction to the bites which will have any issues, most of us will just experience some mild discomfort for a short while.

Hopefully this post has helped you if not overcome your fear of spiders at least allowed you to understand what amazing creatures they are.

Thanks for reading!

Just a side note- a while ago Australia had to ban a children's program which encouraged them not to be scared of spiders which would harm them. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11411098/Australian-broadcaster-bans-unsuitable-Peppa-Pig-episode-featuring-a-friendly-spider.html

Check out this video from BBC