Say ‘Hello’ to my little friend

Yesterday afternoon when I got home, there was a visitor waiting for me. My wife had informed me of his presence prior to my arrival, so I was not unprepared.

Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax)

Bold Jumping Spider - (Phidippus audax)

This is commonly called a Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax). They are easily identified both by their relatively large size (13 to 20 mm long) and their iridescent chelicerae (part of their mouth). Of course I had to snap a couple photos before I maneuvered him into a small box so that I could put him outside. I really need to have a macro lens for opportunities like this.

5 comments

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  1. Sorry, but that is the sort of thing I own guns for. I realize that most spiders are pretty harmless, but they scare the shit out of me and the bigger they are, the bigger the weaponry I bust out on them. (Actually, I only shoot if they’re larger than my eldest’s bug catcher can handle – at that point, it’s every man for himself)

  2. I suppose the photo doesn’t really have anything for scale so that you could get an idea of the size of this gargantuan beast. I’d say (just estimating) that the way he’s standing in the photo he would have fit inside the circumference of a dime. He was on the ceiling at the time, too. The photo was rotated 180 degrees and cropped, but not resized.

  3. That is a very little spider, but still I think it is scary.

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