Appearance

One peculiar characteristic of a jumping spider is its ability to see things which are ignored by normal spiders. It has eight eyes which is the thing that enables us to identify it. Its eyes are generally arranged in the front in two or three rows. The first row enables the stereoscopic vision which gives the ability to see in 3-Dimensional perspective. It will be surely terrible to see a human size of this spider with its peculiar appearance.

Their appearance can be misleading as the 5000 different species of this particular type of spider can appear like an ant, a beetle, like a rock or simply a sand surface.

Jumping Characteristic

The most interesting thing about this spider is its ability to jump to far distances. It typically jumps to about 60-80 times its body length. That may not appear much to a human being as this spider is very small. Moreover, this jumping is not the result of muscle activity which cannot help it jump far, but its hydraulic system in the legs.

This system changes the pressure of the liquid before starting to jump and thus enable that much longer distance jumps. It does emit a silky liquid or tether which sticks to the place it stays. In the event it fails in its jumping attempt the silk tether helps it get back up to the place it started or helps it reach to the safe place.

What Do They Eat?

These jumping spiders eat live insects which they capture after their jumping action. There is said to be a species of this type which can eat mosquito which has blood as it can smell the blood in it. They also eat nectar of flowers and protect it from insects by eating those insects. This is like protection for the plant from insects.

Where Can We Find Them?

It is hard to find these in a city. They live typically in tropical forests, deserts or on high elevation mountains.