Jumping Spider

Description:

Heratemita alboplagiata Simon, 1899 is a strikingly beautiful Jumping Spider. It has a very robust physique, with hugely disproportionate front legs. It appears to be entirely covered in fine hairs, but the most striking characteristic which makes it recognizable at a glance is the predominantly black body and legs with large pure white markings. Having said all that, I noticed when preparing my pictures for uploading, that this specimen has a thinner hair covering on the back of the abdomen, revealing the brown colour of the carapace. I am unsure why this is the case as it is the first specimen I have seen with this condition.

Habitat:

This bold little spider jumped onto my camera when I was taking pictures of insects in our vegetable patch. I tried to remove him to place him on some cucumber leaves where he could find a variety of potential prey, but he jumped onto my hand and refused to leave. So he ended up being the star of the show and the insects had to wait for another time.

Notes:

Anyone who has ever encountered Jumping Spiders will probably agree that they appear to be very friendly and that was certainly my impression for some years. Lately, however, I realize that I felt that way because they are usually so easy to handle and those big front eyes look kind of cute. But over time, having seen so many catching and devouring prey insects, I have had to face the reality that they are voracious hunters who are not friendly, but entirely fearless. When they jump onto your hand and look at you with those big eyes, they are probably thinking that if you were only a bit smaller, they could eat you.