Jumper goodness

[Cigarman]

And our special guest today is Phiddipus Audax from lovely Westbrook, Maine. It appreciates TV, Magazines and mealworms. (Ikea tupperware provided for temporary housing.

[Stefan2209]

Hi there,

getting us "old Europeans" jealous... :D

Proudly present a present from Italy here:

CB offspring of P. audax

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b50/Stefan2209/P-1.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b50/Stefan2209/P-2.jpg

Note: these offsprings are NOT from my side, but from another European hobbyist, who was so kind to share his breed.

Nice pic, by the way.

Greetings,

Stefan

[Cigarman]

No worries! You have such cool little monsters there as well. I love that demon faced spider that someone posted from Spain. Im not sure who has the bigger jumper but I love em all! They always seem so clever when you watch them doing their thing. Mine is still munching on that worm as I type this. I think its a little on the big side for a jumper but that didnt stop it for a second. It pounced on the worm after studying it and fought quite a wrestling match until the worm succumbed to the bites. Perhaps next time I will try a fruitfly or something more bite sized. I have to say they are more difficult to photograph than most since they are always on the move. Your closeups are great. Some day I will get a better camera (nikon, canon etc.) and see how well I can do! :D

[Cigarman]

And so after a good meal and a rest in plastic accomodations, our hero sets forth to seek out a new home!

[Stefan2209]

Hi there,

no doubt, the biggest jumpers i´ve seen so far came from the US! From Florida to be exact. Thought, i´d already seen some, but apparently there are real "monsters" around even the P. audax looked tiny compared to some other specimen from that location.

To my experience, jumpers are the most difficult spiders to get good pictures of. They are just too curious about what´s going on around them and i had them often jump onto my camera lense while trying to snap a pic... :D

Nevertheless, well worth the effort.

Apparently the slings are quite easy to raise, though.

Greetings,

Stefan

[beetleman]

we have the p.regius down here in fla. and they are the biggest jumpers i have seen.

[Cigarman]

any photos? I'd love to see one. I've heard Venezuela has the biggest at 2 inches or so....

[beetleman]

no camera yet:wall: gotta get me one,if you do a search you'll see them.just look under jumping spiders of fla. or someone here must have a pic of 1.:)

[dbozic]

Can anybody please tell me how much they can live ?,thanks, Dario.

[Arachnomaniak]

Great pics! I love juming spiders! We went to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico for our honeymoon and I got to see some really neat species! My wife still thinks I'm nuts for spending a good chunk of the honeymoon "chasing critters" :P

[JungleGuts]

cool pics!

[dragonblade71]

Since jumping spiders have similar vision to our own and can 'watch tv', has anyone actually observed them reacting to something theyve seen on television?

[Johnnyster]

Guido (my Phidippus audax) and I were watching Spiderman ....I was munching on popcorn and he was sipping a mealworm and he was cracking up. Then he looked at me with that "you believe this crap? cant believe you paid $$$ for this DVD" look in his face.

LOL,,, sorry, couldnt help it...... :clap:

Lates

[JLDomestics]

Good photos. I have several neat jumping spiders that I need a better camera to take pictures of. One is black with an orange abdomen with white hairs on the orange abdomen.

[dragonblade71]

"Guido (my Phidippus audax) and I were watching Spiderman ....I was munching on popcorn and he was sipping a mealworm and he was cracking up. Then he looked at me with that "you believe this crap? cant believe you paid $$$ for this DVD" look in his face."


LOL....I could almost visualise that!

Somewhere Ive got a National Geographic article and one photo shows a jumping spider confronted with a video monitor. The monitor is displaying footage of another jumping spider of the opposite sex shown life size. The 'real' jumping spider is practising the courtship ritual in response to the video image.

[Matt K]

The jumpers are my favorite group, partly because of thier interesting body forms and wonderful colors, and partly because they can SEE everything so well! So active and curious..... I have a few varieties here///// maybe I should start culturing them ???
:clap: {D