Giant Jumping Spider

Description:

This is a very big Jumping Spider. It is colourful, but rather dark and menacing in appearance. The abdomen is golden-brown on front and along the sides. The upper surface of the carapace a very dark greenish colour, but changes depending on the angle of view. The trochanter and femur of the two posterior pairs of legs start golden-brown, but change to dark green (almost black) from the tibia to the tarsus. The cephalothorax is dark golden brown and the eye arrangement is typical of the Salticidae, The two big front eyes have golden rims making them look like goggles. There is a black "mask" from the front eyes speading half way over the cephalothorax. I believe this spider to be Hyllus maskaranus Barrion & Litsinger, 1995, but I have seen no pictures to confirm this.

Habitat:

This Giant Jumping Spider was spotted on foliage growing at the side of an old farm building. I can't identify the foliage, but it was dense and consisted of numerous different bushes all entwined together.

Notes:

I have frequently spotted Jumping Spiders in this location, but this was my only spotting of a giant. I don't know if this Hyllus sp. predates on other Jumping Spiders, but I would not like to have been the smaller spider included in the picture above. The smaller species is a female Telemonia masinloc and, by coincidence, also documented by Barrion & Litsinger, 1995. I did not crop it out of the picture so that it would give an idea of the scale.