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#jumpingspiders

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Yesterday I was going up to a park bench to lock my bike to it when I saw the most enormous bold jumping spider (_Phidippus audax_) poking her head out from between two slats. She had a spacious silk retreat with a well-wrapped egg sac. She was shy, but I gradually lured her out by lightly dragging a blade of grass across one opening of the retreat, and she stalked and pounced on it, like a cat.

I find that contrary to their name bold jumpers are very shy at first, but once they've gotten used to you they are unafraid and will climb all over you. Unfortunately I didn't have time to properly make friends with this spider.

#SpiderSunday: A male _Habronattus decorus_ on the western shore of Tommy Thompson Park! I have only found these before on the City Hall green roof. The females have camouflaging brown patterns, but the males have a silvery-white cephalothorax and iridescent abdomen that shifts between orange-red and purple-red. And like all jumping spiders, their large front middle eyes give them a cute and charismatic aura.

Continued thread

anyway i did go for a walk. here's a little jumping spider (_Attulus fasciger_) getting startled by a springtail.

this was near the base of a telephone pole so yes it smelled very much of pee and i had to use tons of hand sanitizer and wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol afterwards. still, delightful

Continued thread

I grabbed a large male midge from a wall nearby—they're still swarming—and slowly waved it in front of the hole. A surprisingly large bold jumping spider (_Phidippus audax_) emerged, seized it from my fingers, and went back in. Then she turned around and sat as before, with her head just out of the hole, eating the midge. (2/2)