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Insects and other arthropods

Jumping spiders

English
Peligrina sp.
Photo: Insectarium de Montréal (Maxim Larrivée)
Jumping spider
  • Jumping spider
  • Jumping spider

Tabs group

Description

This is a large family of spiders, with a wide variety of size and colouration. Jumping spiders range from 1 to 22 mm, but most are small. They often have contrasting bright or iridescent colours, especially the males. Their legs are relatively short.

They are generally recognizable by the shape of their cephalothorax (the front part of a spider’s body, combining the head and thorax) and particularly by the size and location of their eight eyes.

Four of the eyes are located at the front of the cephalothorax, and the two anterior median eyes are especially large and mobile.

The other four eyes are located in back, giving jumping spiders a 360° field of vision.

Jumping spiders do not spin webs. They produce silken threads that they use as safety lines when leaping, or to make shelters.

Life cycle

Jumping spiders, like all spiders, grow by shedding their “skin” when they moult. They do not undergo any kind of metamorphosis. The young spiders, or juveniles, look like smaller versions of adults. The number of moults depends on the species.

The males attract females with a courtship display. The males of many species have tufts of coloured or iridescent hair or fringes on their front legs. They display these features in the lead-up to mating.

French name
Araignées sauteuses (saltiques)
English name
Jumping spiders
Class
Arachnida
Order
Araneae
Family
Salticidae