Phidippus audax
Phidippus audax
— Where the name comes from
Phidippus recalls perhaps the Greek name Pheídippos, “sparing of horses”; audax is Latin, “bold, daring”, from the fearless way it confronts and even studies people. It is one of the commonest jumping spiders in North America, famous for its great forward-facing eyes.
— Facts
- Group
- Arachnids · Arachnida
- Order
- Spiders
- Habitat
- Fields, walls, fences, low sunlit vegetation
- Range
- North America
- Size
- 6–13 mm
- Diet
- Carnivore — insects and other spiders, taken by ambush
- Lifespan
- About a year
— Characteristics
- 01
It weaves no web for hunting: it stalks and pounces on prey like a cat.
- 02
It has the sharpest sight of any spider: four pairs of eyes, two of them huge and forward-facing.
- 03
Before jumping it fixes a safety line, so as not to fall if it misses.
— What sets it apart
The jumping spider sees better than almost any other arthropod: its two large front eyes work like tiny telephoto lenses, with a retina it shifts about to focus and even to tell colours apart, ultraviolet included. It hunts like a cat — it follows its prey with its eyes, closes in, judges the distance and leaps — and before every jump it anchors a thread of silk at the starting point, so that if it misjudges it hangs rather than falls. Many people find it oddly likeable precisely because it looks back, turning its head to watch you.
