First of all, I wish you all a Happy New Year! Unconsciously, 2020 has been, 2019 has gained a lot, but also encountered a lot of setbacks, I hope that the new year can stain everyone's light, we make progress together, better and better!
Well, the book is back to the book, and the topic we're going to talk about today is spiders.
I have also written several bird-catching spider breeding tutorials and popular science articles before, and I believe that everyone has some understanding of this new pet that has risen in recent years. But today our protagonist is not a bird-catching spider, but another kind of smaller, more lively, more agile spider - jumping spiders.
In general, the jumping spider is a family of spiders, that is, the salticidae of the jumping spider family, also known as the fly tiger family. In fact, we can often see the small figure of jumping spiders in our lives, they do not weave spider webs hanging between the branches, but they are very good at jumping and love to jump.
Multi-colored golden cicada spider phintella versicolor
Spider hunting methods can be roughly divided into two types: waiting type and safari type. The spiders we usually see that weave hanging spider webs are waiting for the spider, and after weaving the web, they crouch on it, waiting for the prey to pass by and stick to the net.
The safari spider generally does not have a fixed hunting area, but will wander around actively looking for prey, and the jumping spider is the latter. Jumping spiders are quite common in both rural and urban areas, especially in green belts, walls and near the cracks in bricks and tiles, as long as you pay attention to find them, you can always find the busy little figure of jumping spiders.
Although jumping spiders do not weave hanging webs, they still make spider silk, which is a safety rope for them and can play a protective role when jumping, and some species of jumping spiders will use spider silk to weave temporary nest nets for themselves to rest, molt or breed, but this nest net is made in a spreading way, rather than the kind of large net that can be hung.
Florida jumping spider phidippus regiu
There are many differences in the spider. First of all, they are the only type of spider that can freely rotate their heads and chests, and can make movements such as raising their heads, bowing their heads, tilting their heads, and turning their heads, which is directly related to their wandering hunting style.
In addition, the most eye-catching thing about the jumping spider is its big bulling eyes. The spider has a total of eight eyes, four directly in front of the cephalothorax and four on the lateral and lateral back of the cephalothorax.
Of the four front eyes, the middle pair is called the front middle eye, the main role is to distinguish the color of the object and the environment; the pair on both sides of the front middle eye is called the front side eye, which is the most visual pair of the eight eyes of the jumping spider, with stereo vision, responsible for observing the shape, distance and dynamics of the object; the pair on both sides of the head and chest near the front side of the eye is called the back middle eye, which is responsible for feeling the intensity of light, but there is no imaging function; the last pair is called the rear side eyes, which can monitor the environment and dynamics of the side and behind the jumping spider.
Brown striped fly tiger plexippus paykulli
The super stereo vision coupled with the flexible twisting of the head and chest makes the jumping spider a small predator who can truly see the six roads.
There is also a secret that academic researchers are obsessed with, that is, their hunting wisdom.
We all know that spiders are invertebrates, and most invertebrates with such a small size are not very intelligent, but jumping spiders are obviously an exception, they have the ability to go beyond the upper limit of the intelligence of similar animals when hunting, show strong decision-making behavior, and have the ability to learn and remember.
In fact, this is also related to its hunting method, because the jumping spider is not waiting for the rabbit, but actively looking for prey, they must be able to distinguish which targets can be hunted, which are not easy to provoke, and continue to accumulate experience.
Jumping spiders often choose to follow them when hunting, and constantly adjust the direction and distance to continuously observe the target, and will also look for cover to hide and detour, increasing the success rate of hunting.
Rhabrian fly lion marpissa pulla
The food of the jumping spider includes a variety of arthropods, mollusks, link animals, etc. that are smaller than them or of comparable size, and even some jumping spiders hunt knotted spiders.
The specific method is this, the jumping spider will pretend to be a small insect, crawl into the spider web and shake its body desperately, very similar to the spider stuck to the spider web. The web spider receives a signal from the web to go to dinner, and the jumping spider then uses its sensitive movements to kill the knotted spider.
There are also some jumping spiders with super-strong mimicry, such as members of the genus myrmarachne, whose appearance mimics ants, and often raises the first pair of footlets to imitate the ant's antennae when walking. But the main purpose of mimetic ants is not to eat ants, but to make flies and other insects unguarded from jumping spiders, so that jumping spiders have more and better opportunities to hunt them.
Yellow ant spider myrmarachne plataleoides
It has to be said that the vast majority of spiders that are raised as pets in the crawling pet circle today are bird-catching spiders, and other spider pets that are not bird-catching spiders include some cancer spiders (including white-fronted high-legged spiders), coiled spiders (money trapdoor spiders), flat spiders, round spiders, jumping spiders, etc., but all these other spiders are collectively called "non-catching" in the climbing pet circle, that is, non-bird-catching spiders, which shows that the bird-catching spider force is really strong.
In fact, there are still many people who raise jumping spiders, but the size of jumping spiders is too small, and it is easy to see them without looking at them, so even within the pet crawling circle, it is not particularly popular.
Raising bird-catching spiders and raising jumping spiders are two completely different concepts, in contrast, jumping spiders are more suitable for novices to raise, because they are less dangerous, the feeding environment is simple, and the personality is lively and interesting.
Flower hasarius adansoni
If you see someone on the Internet or somewhere else saying that "jumping spiders are non-poisonous spiders", get away from it quickly, it is someone else fooling you.
Of all the living members of the order Spider, only the suborder Mesothelae and the suborder Neoathax suborder Umuropodidae and holarchaea have a total of more than 300 species of spiders that are non-venomous, and as of July 2019, more than 48,200 spider species have been found so far.
In other words, the vast majority of spiders we see in our daily lives are venomous, but the toxicity varies. Including the bird-catching spider and our protagonist jumping spider today, are poisonous spiders, but bird-catching spiders can cause harm to humans, but jumping spiders almost do not hurt people, their poisonous fangs are even difficult to pierce human skin, even if punctured, that poor amount of detox is negligible for humans, so from a safety point of view, jumping spiders are more suitable for novice breeding.
Golden-dot flash spider heliophanus auratus
The environment in which jumping spiders are kept can be simple or complex.
In simple terms, a small pudding cup or a fighting fish cup can be done, but pay attention to the stomata to open a little smaller, so as not to jump spiders to escape. The bedding can be made of coconut soil, just remember to spray water on the coconut soil frequently and maintain the humidity. If you are too lazy to get even coconut soil, you can also use wet paper towels to increase humidity to the environment without putting up the mat.
However, for jumping spiders, the ideal environment is still more complex and has a certain degree of abundance, such as some dodges, stones, branches, non-toxic and harmless decorations or plants (real and false) can be placed on the coconut soil, so that the small wisdom of the jumping spider can be exerted.
There are not many food options, because the jumping spider is very small, so juvenile or sub-adult jumping spiders can feed remnants or wingless fruit flies, and adult jumping spiders can feed newly hatched bread worms, needle crickets and Dobia.
Peacock jumping spider maratus volans