April 23rd, 2006
little king kong
Last weekend, while hiking along Black Ance Road at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park, we stopped for a siesta on the banks of Black Creek. This is the same location where Sabrina found our first snake of the season.
I tossed my jacket on the ground and lay on my side while listening to the snoring chorus of nearby Leopard frogs. Soon after, a furry, black jumping spider (Family Salticidae) appeared on my jacket — seeming to glare at me rather intently. I picked up a leaf and held it out in front of the spider. It accepted my invitation and hopped aboard. I reached for my camera with the intention of taking a few photos. The spider had other ideas and immediately hopped to the back of my hand, ran in circles a couple of times before making a heroic leap onto the leaf litter about a foot below — roughly the spider equivalent of hopping off of a 20 story building. It perched on another leaf, which I picked up and turned in order to shoot a few photos (see above and below – click on images to see larger version). This time, the spider was quite accommodating and posed for a number of photos before once again leaping onto my hand. This time, it ran under my palm and popped back out between my fingers, coyly peering at me as I raised my hand to get a better look at my companion. Apparently this was too much for the spider as it immediately lept to the leaf litter once more. Between its bristly, black fuzz and its reckless leaps and bounds, there was something that made King Kong come to mind.
The spider could have strayed off, but instead, it hung around, occasionally skipping through the leaf litter, before stopping to regard me once more. At one point, it climbed aboard a piece of driftwood to a better vantage point from which to glare at me.
I’m unsure of the spider’s ID — probably a species of Phidippus. As mentioned in my recent post on spider eyes, most Jumping spiders (Salticidae) can be recognized by their large anterior median eyes (center front pair of eyes) along with their “jumping” action and somewhat pugnacious attitude.
The Black Ance Road jumping spider isn’t the first that has reminded me of King Kong. A couple of years ago, I photographed what is, I think, a Phidippus clarus. When I put the photo up on my computer screen, I was surprised to find that the spider bore an uncanny resemblence to a gorilla or chimpanzee. Check out the photo (below) and see what I mean.
Tags: Jumping spider, Salticidae, Phidippus, Phidippus clarus
April 25th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Great spider photos!
April 25th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Those are amazing photos, Bev. Jumping spiders are my hands-down favorites. Congratulations!
April 25th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Thanks, both of you! Wayne, I think I like Jumping spiders about the best too. Maybe because they are so very observant and more willing to interact than most other spiders. I’m also partial to Wolf spiders, but they are definitely not much interested in interaction. Of course, the big Argiope are my other favourites, but again, they aren’t much for human interaction.
April 26th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
OK Bev, I hadn’t thought about wolf spiders but I do like them a lot too. I’ve even been bitten by one. I was weeding and I felt a big dull pinch, not a sharp venomous one. It was a big wolf spider cruising through the weeds that I had gathered unknowningly. The fang muscles are too weak to penetrate, but I did get a signal.
The other thing about wolf spiders, of course, are the babies they carry on their back. I do love that.
February 21st, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Scary. I don’t really like spiders, but I do like looking at pictures of them, and studying them. Ithink you should put a ton of spiders on here. People, like myself, would really like it. All the people I know hate spiders when they come in contact with them, but when it comes to looking at pictures, or studying about spiders, they’ll be there. So please, take this comment into consideration, and please, put more spiders on here, or wherever you can get them.
Sincerely, Chase O’Neal
February 21st, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Hi Chase – Thanks for the comments about the spider photos and this post. As you may have noticed, I have a category for “Spiders” in the categories on the right sidebar. If you click on that, you’ll find that I’ve written quite a few posts about spiders, so just visit a few of them. I do like to write about spiders as they’re one of my favourite things to photograph. Thanks for the suggestions and input.
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:40 am
thanks for pictures about spider