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Project Noah Nature School
This is an unidentified jumping spider, with traces of its reproductive web visible in photos 3 & 4. "Like all true spiders, the jumping spiders do create silk, but not for web making. Instead, they use the silk to line their places of refuge to make them more comfortable, they use the silk to create a covering for their cluster of eggs, and they also commonly string a line of silk behind them as they roam about on walls or patios. It is thought that this line of silk serves as a "drag-line" enabling the spider to stop its fall should it fall or leap off a surface. ( http://buginfo.com/article.cfm?id=92 )
Observed atop its nest within a leaf of "black night" (Alternanthera brasiliana) in a large semi-urban yard & garden next to a disturbed patch of remnant lowland forest.
It is perhaps the same species shown here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/128... which presents a very good example of a classic jumping spider reproductive web.
Spotted on Oct 10, 2012
Submitted on Jan 14, 2013
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