Platycryptus
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Meet platycryptus undatus, one of the most easily recognizable jumping spiders. This is a female, which you can easily tell by the lovely eyelashes visible in the high-resolution version. Actually, you can tell by looking at the short little pedipalps below her eyes. On a male these would be noticeably larger.
Platycryptus is easily identifiable by a wavy stripe down the back. Just like driver license photos, however, this candid shot turned out much more striking than the pictures I took for ID. This picture reveals just why I like jumping spiders so much: they are very interactive creatures. It is possible that she is looking at her reflection in the lens and warily studying it to see if that other female needs to be run off, but it is equally likely that she is merely looking at the camera itself.
Athena said,
August 24, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
I love jumping spiders. As long as they’re furry, they’re fine by me. It’s the spindly ones I don’t like!
That shot is just funny. It almost looks like a puppet.
Margaret Hickox said,
October 18, 2007 @ 9:26 am
Love those eyelashes! She has the “Nermal” look of a kitten trying to appear innocent. Your pictures have me smiling and even laughing out loud.
Insect Picture of the Day » Platycryptus Undatus said,
July 7, 2008 @ 9:48 am
[…] undatus! This is one of my favorite spiders. (I showed one of these last year.) In the picture last year, I mentoned that they have a very recognizable chevron pattern down their […]