Facts About Jumping Spiders

Jumping spiders belong to the family Salticidae, the largest spider family in the world, with roughly 6,000 to 7,000 described species across more than 600 genera.

They have eight eyes arranged in four pairs, including two large forward-facing principal eyes that give them sharp, detailed vision.

Many jumping spiders can leap up to 50 times their own body length, powered by a rapid surge of blood (hemolymph) pressure into their legs rather than by leg muscles alone.

Jumping spiders don't rely on binocular vision like humans do for depth perception. A 2012 study found that a single principal eye can judge distance using 'image defocus,' where mismatched focus across layers of the retina reveals how far away an object is.

Some species, such as Habronattus, can see ultraviolet light, letting them detect UV markings on flowers and on each other that are invisible to human eyes.

Jumping spiders communicate through vibration, drumming and shaking their bodies to send seismic signals across leaves and other surfaces during courtship and territorial encounters.

The idea that jumping spiders recognize themselves in a mirror is not supported by rigorous testing; true mirror self-recognition has only been convincingly shown in a small number of animals, none of them spiders.

Jumping spiders do have real recognition abilities: Portia labiata females can tell their own silk draglines apart from those of other spiders, and Phidippus regius has been shown to recognize individual spiders it has met before.

Jumping spiders do produce venom to subdue their insect prey, but it is not dangerous to humans; bites are rare and, if they happen, typically cause only minor, temporary irritation.

Unlike many spiders, jumping spiders don't build webs to catch prey. They stalk and pounce on their targets, though they still spin silk for safety lines and small nest-like retreats.

Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping spider found in Central America, gets most of its diet from plant matter rather than insects, making it one of the very few largely herbivorous spiders known to science.

Jumping spiders live on nearly every continent and in habitats ranging from deserts to rainforest canopies. Euophrys omnisuperstes, found high in the Himalayas, is among the highest-altitude permanent animal residents ever recorded.

Some coastal jumping spiders, like New Zealand's Marpissa marina, live along rocky, wave-splashed shorelines and can survive brief submersion, but no jumping spider species lives permanently underwater.

Jumping spiders have distinctive, often colorful markings that vary widely by species, and males of many species perform elaborate visual courtship dances to attract females.