Complete Guide To The Canopy Jumping Spider
Canopy Jumping Spider
Canopy Jumping Spider Images
How To Identify Canopy Jumping Spiders
- Canopy Jumping Spiders are sexually dimorphic but share some characteristics in common.
- Both males and females have:
- Large, black eyes
- Metallic green chelicerae
- Two pairs of hair tufts on the cephalothorax next to the anterior lateral eyes.
- One pair of tufts sticks straight up
- The second pair sticks out to the side
- Both males and females have:
- Female Canopy Jumping Spiders:
- Grow to 0.7 inches (1.7 cm) in total body length.
- Cephalothorax:
- Is black and covered in pale cream hairs.
- Has a thin black band between the eyes.
- Has a black clypeus (the area between the anterior eyes and the chelicerae), so looks like the spider has a mustache.
- Abdomen:
- Complex pattern of brown, tan, and cream
- Legs are dark brown and covered with dense, short cream hairs.
- Male Canopy Jumping Spiders:
- Grow to 0.6 inches (1.4 cm) in total body length.
- Cephalothorax:
- Black overall but has a cream band around the back edge.
- Abdomen:
- Mostly black with paired white spots and a tan band that curves around the front of the abdomen
- Legs are black with fine, white hairs.
Canopy Jumping Spiders Notes
- Canopy Jumping Spiders are arboreal. They live in the tree canopy of hardwood and coniferous forests, as well as in shrubs and bushes.
- These spiders are more common in the southern part of North Carolina.
Canopy Jumping Spider Classification
- The Canopy Jumping Spider gets its informal, English, common name from its preferred habitat, which is in the canopy of trees.
- This species is also known as the “Lazy Jumping Spider”, as its specific epithet (i.e. the species designation “otiosus“) means “idle” in Latin (Gaddy 2009).
|
Phylum |
Arthropoda |
|
Class |
Arachnida |
|
Order |
Araneae |
|
Family |
Salticidae |
|
Genus |
Phidippus |
|
Species |
P. otiosus |
Binomial Name |
Phidippus otiosus |
