The+Hunting+Spiders+-+The+Jumping+Spiders

The Hunting Spiders - Part 1
__INTRODUCTION __ Spiders are well known to be the web-weaving predators of the arthropod world. In popular culture, spiders are often portrayed with webs that contain their prey. There are actually several families of spiders that are hunting spiders, meaning the spiders actively search for their prey instead of passively waiting for a wandering insect to get caught in their web. Three common families of hunting spiders in the northeastern region of the United States are jumping spiders, sac spiders, and wolf spiders.

__JUMPING SPIDERS (Salticidae) __

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Infraorder: Araneomorphae Family: Salticidae

Fig. 1: Jumping spider on leaf.

Jumping spiders are a highly unique family of spiders that includes over 3000 species of spiders worldwide (Cutler, 1982). In higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere, such as North America, they tend to live in shrubby and herbaceous habitats, where they will be able to find their preferred prey, which are insects or other spiders (Cutler, 1982). They have four large eyes on their faces and four smaller eyes on top of their heads. Their eyes are a defining characteristic for them. Jumping spiders are well known for their excellent vision, which allows them to view the world with color vision, and their retinae are movable, making them optimal predators (Koyanagi et al 2008 and Spano et al 2012). Living up to their name, jumping spiders can jump over thirty times their body length, a skill combined with their vision that they utilize to capture prey (Taylor et al 1998). A diurnal arachnid, the jumping spider searches for its prey during the daytime (Koyanagi et al 2008). The jumping spider will lift its front legs and jump with contracting muscles in the body that forces the legs to extend at a fast rate (Taylor et al 1998).

Fig. 2: Close-up of Jumping Spider's eyes.

The jumping spider is usually around 2 cm long and, depending on the species, can have very decorative colors (Masta and Maddison 2002). Males may even mock beetles to attract potential mates (Masta and Maddison 2002). Jumping spiders have shorter legs and abdomens incomparison to other spider families (Masta and Maddison 2002). Males court females by means of bobbing their abdomens, waving their legs, and hopping specific patterns (Masta and Maddison 2002).

The most common jumping spiders in Vermont are the North American Jumping Spider, the Tan Jumping Spider, and the Woodland Jumping Spider (Platnick and Solomon 2013).

 Fig. 3: Jumping spider with tasty meal.

Created by D. Bartolanzo

For more exciting information on these guys, check out this website!

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References:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1. Cutler, B. 1982. Extreme northern and southern distribution records for jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) in the Western Hemisphere. Arctic. 35: 426-428.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2. Koyanagi, M., Nagata, T., Katoh, K., Yamashita, S., and Tokunaga F. 2008. Molecular evolution of arthropod color vision deduced from multiple opsin genes of jumping spiders. Journal of Molecular Evolution. 66: 130-137.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">3. Masta, S. E., and Maddison, W. P. 2002. Sexual selection driving diversification in jumping spiders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99: 4442-4447.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">4. Platnick, N. I., and Solomon, P. J. "The World Spider Catalog." The World Spider Catalog. American Museum of Natural History, 17 May 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://research.amnh.org/iz/spiders/catalog/SALTICIDAE.html>.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">5. Spano, L., Long, S. M., and Jakob, E. M. 2012. Secondary eyes mediate the response to looming objects in jumping spiders (Phidippus audax, Salticidae). Biology Letters. 8: 949-951.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">6. Taylor, P. W., Jackson, R. R., and Robertons, M. W. 1998. A Case of Blind Spider's Buff?: Prey-capture by jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) in the absence of visual cues. Journal of Arachnology. 26: 369-381.

Images:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Figure 1: Quine, Thomas (Photographer). (April 6, 2011). Higher Contrast. [Web Photo] Retrieved from

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Figure 2: Shahan, Thomas (Photographer). (April 23, 2009). Partyzan_XXI. [Web Photo] Retrieved from

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Figure 3: Niland, James (Photographer). (March 20, 2011). ComputerHotline. [Web Photo] Retrieved from