Today, I came out of the shower and put on a pot of coffe, when suddenly, I noticed this unusual spider on the wall. It darted around rather quickly. As I went to take a closer look, I noticed it had an evil face on its body! really WT..is that? As I leaned in to take a picture with my phone, it literally jumped a clear foot off the wall on to my phone. I was startled and in a state of confusion as I threw my phone down.
After some research I found out it's called a Phidippus audax is a common jumping spider.
Phidippus audax is a common jumping spider of North America. It is commonly referred to as the daring jumping spider, or bold jumping spider. The average size of adults ranges from roughly 13–20 millimetres in length. They are typically black with a pattern of spots and stripes on their abdomen and legs. Often these spots are orange-tinted in juveniles, turning white as the spider matures. The spider belongs to the genus Phidippus, a group of jumping spiders easily identified both by their relatively large size and their iridescent chelicerae. In the case of P. audax, these chelicerae are a bright, metallic green or blue.
These spiders have been known to jump from 10 to 50 times their own body length by suddenly increasing the blood pressure in the third or fourth pair of legs, and the male may jump away during mating if the female approaches too quickly.
Like other jumping spiders, due to their large, forward-facing eyes, they have very good stereoscopic vision. This aids them when stalking prey, and allows some visual communication with others of their species, such as courting 'dances'.
I would have jumped like crazy if I'd seen that thing!!!!!
Apparently they do bite and leave a nasty sting too. They are really something else!
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus_audax
freeeeky! so cool tho.
Ya how am I going to sleep tonight ?? what if theres more lol