Know Your Enemy
Accurate identification of pests is as important as choosing the best preventive pest management available on the market today. Preventive Pest Control has compiled a list of most common pests to help you identify the problem.
Bold Jumper Spider
(Phidippus audax)
Characteristics
The bold jumper spider has eight eyes with a pair of anterior median eyes as the largest. The six remaining eyes are the smaller anterior lateral. This spider has a great eyesight that is used when searching for prey or when searching for a mate.
Females are 31/100 to 3/5 inch in length while males are 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Their cephalathorax and abdomen are black with white hairs. They have a large, triangular white spot in the middle of the abdomen. They have powerful hind legs that are made for leaping and jumping on their prey.
Habitat
They commonly live in grasslands, prairies, open woodlands, old fields, backyards and gardens. They can be mostly seen during the daylight hours and may be hunting their prey on windowsills, deck railings, under stones, tree trunks, and so on.
Behavior
This spider prefers to hunt alone. Instead of searching for prey at night, this bold jumping spider will search for food during the day. With the use of its sharp vision and its jumping ability, this spider can sneak on its prey without being seen. When it jumps, it will discharge a line of webbing to secure itself.
To avoid being the prey, this spider will just avoid insects that are much larger than them. They will hide in small crevices or just jump out of sight of the animal. At night, the jumping spider will hide in crevices or create their own retreat so that they can avoid predators that may hunt them instead.
Food
This spider can eat a variety of insects and even other spiders, such as bugs, bollworms, hobo spiders, and so on.
Life Cycle
The life of new spiders begins with an adult male spider courting a female. To attract a female, the male will show off his colored spots as he lifts some of his legs. The female needs to approach slowly and cautiously or else the male will run or jump away. Once mating is complete, the female will produce multiple egg sacs that can contain 30 to 170 eggs. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings will disperse and will rely on themselves for their own survival. Maturity for these spiders usually occurs during late spring or early summer.
Other Information and Tips
This jumping spider can be beneficial when it is outdoors since it can consume insect pests. The bold jumping spider is not known to be dangerous to humans because they rarely bite. If they do bite, they will do this in defense. However, the chances of being bitten is slim because they are difficult to catch and they seem to be fearful of humans.
Photo by Kaldari (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
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