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Unidentified Salticidae
Jumping Spiders, as we all know, belong to the Family Salticidae. According to Wikipedia, this is the largest spider family, having more than 600 genera and over 6,000 described species. I have not come across any estimate of the number of undescribed species of jumping spiders, but I am sure that it must be a huge number. I have been taking pictures of jumping spiders for a while now and, although I have not checked, I think that my unidentified photos greatly outnumber those which I have been able to identify. Compared to other types of spiders, the "jumpers" are easy to identify as such. They have a set of characteristic features which no other spider family has. Their cephalothorax has a unique shape and that helps a lot in identification. Then if you can get a view of the eyes (arranged in four pairs; two large eyes in front, flanked by two smaller ones, then two lateral and two rear facing) you can't go wrong. That shape of cephalothorax and those eyes can only mean that you are looking at a jumper. So if it that easy, why can I not identify this spider? The answer is simple enough. Although I have been bug and spider hunting for a few years now, I am nowhere near the level of experience and knowledge required to even point myself in the right direction. With just a few exceptions, nearly every attempt at identifying a jumper turns into the long and eventually tiring process of looking at many hundreds of pictures until I get a hit, if I'm lucky. So, this one has ended up in my "difficult" list, but that's OK. I know I will find its proper identity one day. Who knows, maybe someone reading this now is smiling, saying "I know that one, what's his problem. I'll give John B. a species suggestion and put him out of his misery" :-)
I spotted this Jumping Spider on a Button Orchid (Dischidia nummularia) growing on a Currant Tree (Antidesma bunius) in our front yard.
Spotted on Mar 16, 2017
Submitted on Sep 20, 2022
2 Comments
Hi Francis,
nice to hear from you. I looked at your spotting and you are quite right. You said your spider was similar to mine, I think it is exactly the same as mine. If you look at your picture no.4 and my picture no.3, you can see a kind of "Y" shaped mark on the back of the abdomen. I think that makes them pretty much the same. If I find an ID for mine, I will let you know and maybe if you find it first, you would be kind enough to let me know. In that way, we can help each other, but I'm not too optimistic about this one. Keep in touch and thanks for your comment. John B.
Hello John B. It seems like we both have trouble trying to identify these Salticidae. I too have spotted a jumping spider that greatly resembles yours.
https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/15...