My name is Livia and I am addicted to jumping spiders! XD
Yeah. I didn't realize how bad I have it until I found myself watching jumping spider videos on Youtube. Like, wow, if you had told me 6 months ago I'd be doing this, I would've laughed long and loud in your face. But it's become an obsession. I think about how much I miss seeing jumping spiders when I'm not out there in the mangrove forest or grasslands looking for them!
I don't deal with obsessions very well because my primary approach is to feed an obsession until it implodes. Or explodes. 8D
As such, I declare this to be "Jumping Spiders Week" for my project. All week, I will post nothing but spider shots! Haha. Not all kinds of spider shots because most spiders still freak me out. But the ones I find cute, and am addicted to, are the non-web-spinning, not-so-long-legged, big-eyed jumping spiders.
I know spider shots are unpopular, as many people find them too freaky, and I don't want you to feel obliged to look and comment if these spiders make you want to thwack your screen with a rolled-up newspaper. Feel free to un-follow me, I don't mind at all, it's okay!
So let's start with this little 6mm (0.2in) beauty! At first glance, it might look like a lynx spider. But it's really a Telamona jumping spider. A key to identifying spiders lies in the arrangement of its eyes. Lynx spiders have theirs arranged in a distinctive hexagonal shape. This guy's eyes are different. Let's count them! (Obviously, I am enjoying my obsession just a little too much. But that's the whole point of Jumping Spiders Week! 8D )
This spider is looking upwards. You can see his 4 pairs of eyes clearly. The front-most forward-facing eyes, which appear orange in my shot, are the biggest. Next to them, a smaller pair of eyes. Further back, the smallest pair of eyes. And right at the back, and more to the top of the head than to the sides, a bigger pair eyes. (But they are still smaller than the biggest front-facing ones.)
Jumping spiders have excellent eyesight! After all, they are active hunters. Given the way their eyes are arranged, they have nearly 360-degree vision. Do all spiders have 8 eyes? Not quite, but most do.
I like the big round eyes of jumping spiders. I think they make them look cute. 8)
You are a lost cause lovely girl! AND so funny, your shots will be interesting I am sure and your knowledge is amazing for something you are not keen on, I shall (with trepidation) look forward to your series; one request - no tarantulas , still can't some to terms with them, no matter how 'fixed' I am. :0) Cute shot though I have to agree
@claireuk Haha, I'm glad to say I don't have any shots of tarantulas, I have not found any and I hope I don't. Tarantulas are too big and too long-legged to be cute in my books! XD These jumping spiders I love are really tiny. Even smaller than the smallest nail on my little finger. I don't feel threatened by them at all. Compared to their tiny size, their big eyes make them look adorable and I love it when a jumping spider turns around to look at me! 8D
I'm loving your obsession with these little guys. I agree they are really neat to look at. I enjoy reading everything you have researched about them too. I look forward to seeing what others you can find this week! :-)
@salza Some of the shots I will be uploading are ones that I already have, taken in the past couple of weeks. 8) Actually, I think I have enough to do a fortnight and not just a week! XD
@cdonohoue I live in Singapore, in Southeast Asia. A lot of jumping spiders live in the tropics. I find most of them in the mangrove forest or grasslands (and I know I have one in the apartment somewhere and it hides from me) but I still consider myself very lucky to have seen the ones that I have. They are hard to spot, being so tiny, and very fast! So, whenever I see one, I just go a little crazy and snap as many shots as I can before the little guy disappears on me! 8)
Bring it on. I like to look at the spiders and take pictures of them. As long as it's one at the time. Can't handle seeing more than one in one shot. Same goes for snakes. Enough about me. This is beautiful macro. he is kind of cute.
Oh Livia, what an obsession! All credit to you for finding out so much about jumping spiders - I love your narrative. This is a lovely shot. I see he has one leg which appears to be bigger and stronger than the others - is that what he uses for jumping
Another amazing shot, Livia! I thought of you last night when I had a tiny spider on my computer monitor. I tried to get it off with a piece of paper so I could open the window and set it free. It kept jumping from place to place - so, of course I thought, "This must be one of Livia's famous jumping spiders!" I never did find him! :)
@janturnbull A jumping spider's front four legs are generally larger than the hind four legs but they actually depend on their rear legs for jumping. The larger front legs are more for grasping their prey, which can sometimes be larger than the spider itself. Jumping spiders can jump 20-50 times their body length. They're pretty amazing. 8)
I'm learning so much because of your obsession - keep 'em coming!! This one is cute, but I was really taken with that hexagonal eyed Lynx. That was sooo cool :)
btw I can't believe the detail you get. I think you probably need to put all these beautiful shots in a book!
Another fantastic shot and I love spiders so I'm still along for the ride but take care! When I took my 'stare' shot the other day I'd only just taken some shots of something that had landed on my leg. So whaddya do? Take photos of course. So I'm taking some shots of it and all of a sudden feel this piercing pain like someone's just stuck a needle in my leg. Anyway, long story short, my leg swelled up to the size of an orange, went hard, red and itchy. It's only just started going down today. The things we do for 'that' shot eh ;o) xx
I`m a big boy and not afraid of spiders , so go ahead. We don`t have jumping spiders much so I`m well interested. And I love you pic and interesting lines. I most take a lot of time and also to answer all you followers . Many thanks for it
Thank you for you concern about my shoes, like we say, everything for a good pic.
Wonderful, looking forward to a week with cute jumping spiders! Love this shot and love what you wrote about the eyes. How cool must it be to have such an amazing kind of vision.
He is ultra-cool! I wonder, are you ever worried they're going to jump on you? I love seeing them here, when you've gotten up nice and close for me (thank you very much!) but if that thing landed in my hair... well, then someone should have a video camera running... lol !
@psychographer Oh my goodness, Lisa, that sounds like such a nasty bite! I hope you're all right now! It was a spider? So far, I haven't been attacked by any ant, spider or bug. I tell myself to be careful all the time. If the subject looks agitated, I leave it alone. The jumping spiders I shoot are really tiny, so I think I'll be able to maintain a calm composure even if they did jump and land on my camera or on me. If I see a spider that I think will make me throw my camera down unthinkingly, in a panic, if it jumped at me, then I won't even try to shoot it. (Yeah, I'm not a photographer at all, I'm not willing to risk everything for a shot, I'm not a risk taker at all. I'm just a cowardly housewife with a small camera. 8P ) When I'm in the mangrove forest or grasslands, I try not to touch any unknown plant or bug because I know some of them can cause bad reactions. I'm particularly careful because I'm asthmatic and have sensitive skin, so I think I will react more badly than most people if I get bitten or stung. Do be careful!
@gabsview I do, I try to think of how I will react if it jumped on my lens and I calculate the odds of my throwing the camera away in a reflex action and damaging it! So what I do is, when I see a spider that I think will make me panic if it jumped at me, then I won't even try to shoot it. I have seen spiders like that. Too big, too fierce-looking! I don't try to get near to them, in fact, I stay away from them once I've spotted them! The jumping spiders I do take photos of are really tiny ones. If they jumped at me, I don't think I will panic badly. Jumping spiders are more likely to avoid people than to jump at us and bite us unless they feel threatened. 8)
Haha! oh dear we're in full obsession mode =) I get like this too, but normally with handsome men or musicians LOL
This is fab Livia, a very weird but strangely cute little fella, i actually don't mind these tiny spiders so much, its the black hairy one's that make me shudder. Have fun!
LOL!! GMTA...see my spider photo today. I am finding them so fascinating but don't see that many. Fabulous shot, Livia and such interesting information!
@bruni Not easy. I make trips to the mangrove forest and grasslands to search for these spiders and it's a matter of luck whether I see them or not. On some trips, I go home empty-handed. Even when I do find one, I may not be able to get a good shot because these spiders are so fast! Sometimes I get one shot or ten shots, or no shots at all. It's very unpredictable. So, when I do find one that is willing to hang around long enough for me to shoot to my heart's content, I am usually very reluctant to say goodbye to it, and always feel like I should take it home with me! XD
A great, big, happily jumpy, wholly addictive, somewhat obsessive "THANK YOU!" to everyone! Thank you for putting up with my ridiculous rambling, thank you for stopping by, thank you for your constant support!
Addiction to jumping spiders...that's...special lol. Never encountered one of these tiny spiders ever, so looking forward to your week :). Great capture!
Awesome capture. Love jumping spiders but I've never seen them this close. I think it would be great to have eight eyes, but would definitely look weird on a persons head.
July 21st, 2012
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btw I can't believe the detail you get. I think you probably need to put all these beautiful shots in a book!
Fab macro! Keep up the good work. :)
Thank you for you concern about my shoes, like we say, everything for a good pic.
The idea of getting close for a macro shot of a JUMPING spider sounds way too scarry
Thank you!
Hurrray for spider week!!
This is fab Livia, a very weird but strangely cute little fella, i actually don't mind these tiny spiders so much, its the black hairy one's that make me shudder. Have fun!
Jumping Spiders Week is on! 8D