Female Jumping Spider

Description:

This beautiful female spider is about 6 to 9 mm long with the male being slightly smaller. These fairly big jumping spiders are covered with short dense, grayish-white hairs, with hairy whitish palps and a white band on the side margins of the carapace or thorax. The female also has a small white, triangular marking in the middle of her carapace as seen in the photo. I had a hard time doing an I.D. on this spider because the markings on the male & female are so different. The legs are light brown with darker rings and patches.

Habitat:

These spiders are can be found in gardens, inside and on the outside of houses, usually found on the walls of buildings near lights where it stalks its prey. This one was found on my homes wall next to the porch light. Wow, the books were right.

Notes:

Although these spiders are native to the Mediterranean region they were introduced to North America in California. The only thing I could find for a reason of the introduction was because these spiders are so good at eating pest insects. Interesting fact on this spider is that it has no common name listed. I have some ideas on a common name but I'm not sure how to proceed with it. If you know, please make a comment. It was difficult to find much information on this spider.