Jumping Spider

Description:

Salticidae; Heliophaninae; Phintella sp. This is a particularly tiny specimen, probably the smallest Phintella sp. I have seen. It is obviously a very young juvenile. Spiders like this are quite common in my immediate area and, every time I have seen one, I have always noticed a kind of iridescent characteristic. This specimen, however, takes this quality to the extreme. If you look at the above photos from left to right, you will see that in the first one, the dorsal surface of the cephalothorax appears to have six black spots. In the second photo, the front two spots have joined to become an irregular wavy black stripe. In the third shot, the black wavy stripe is much darker and in the last picture, the stripe is beginning to disappear. I can assure you that these are all pictures of the same spider, taken just seconds apart. The same iridescent "trick of the light" is also happening on the carapace. I have not yet had time to check all my other (more adult) Phintella pictures, but I am sure that this juvenile is displaying greater iridescence - maybe just because his fine, shiny coat of hair is still new,

Habitat:

This Jumping Spider was spotted on a leaf of a Fragrant Premna (Premna odorata) in our back garden. Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.com/Alagaw.html...

Notes:

In Wikipedia, there are only 3 Phintella spp. listed as present in Philippines. P. bunyiae Barrion & Litsinger, 1995, P. piatensis Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 and P. vittata, (C. L. Koch,1846). So, despite the problems of iridescence, it cannot be too great a task to complete the identification of my various Phintella spiders. I will just have to persist until I get there.