Predators With Good Reasons to Be Jumpy

Hunger and deprivation are excellent motivators, especially for panhandle Florida’s smallest residents.

One such member of these native arthropods is the jumping spider. This salticid, a member of the Saltididae family, defies many of the commonly held perceptions of spiders.

Jumping spiders actively hunt prey during the day and are often seen moving vigorously in the chase for the next morsel. When everything is aligned perfectly, it pounces on its luckless victim.

The smiley face on this spider’s back side has an important purpose. It deceives and confuses would-be predators that might attempt to eat this tiny, jumpy arachnid.

Even though jumping spiders do not construct webs to capture prey, they do produce and use silk for several purposes. When pouncing, these spiders trail a dragline behind them to control their decent in case they miss the target on a jump.

Also, their silken nests, elliptical in shape, are structures with an access opening at each end. The local jumping spiders use these for lodging at night, a safe molting site, and egg-laying by the females.

Females will lay up to four batches of eggs with the first batch averaging over 180 eggs, but the number of eggs decline with each successive batch.

Even without their propensity for hurdling (relatively) great distances, this group of spiders is easy to identify.  They have three rows of eyes which are very useful both when hunting and when avoiding hunters with a taste for spiders.