The Day Patrol

Posted by Paul Decelles November 26, 2009 at 1:55 p.m.

This jumping spider is maybe an 1/8" long. It is currently hanging out among my house plants.

Copy and paste the link:

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liggyon (David Lignell) says…

Never trust anything with four eyes.
November 26, 2009 at 2:20 p.m.
pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…

LOL,

Actually they have 8 eyes the two big ones in the front are for detailed vision and the other 6 are probably more for detecting movement like our peripheral vision.

Also the lens is part of the exoskeleton so to focus the image on the retina, the spider has muscles that move the retina back and forth.

http://tolweb.org/accessory/Jumping_S...
November 26, 2009 at 2:35 p.m.
Irish (Leslie Swearingen) says…

I have always been fasinated by spiders. I remember watching a black spider modify its behavior in order to catch a fly. It was obviously making a plan of action.
Jumping spiders must have acute vision because they hunt instead of depending on something to fly or fall into a web.
Thanks for the picture.
November 26, 2009 at 7:42 p.m.
DougCounty (anonymous) says…

Wow! Is that depth of field like 1/4 of an inch? What camera settings did you use?
November 30, 2009 at 8:16 a.m.
pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…

I simply used the standard macro settings on my canon rebel...along with the flash. I do have their standard macro lens which is a really nice lens by the way. I can give you the exact specs later.
November 30, 2009 at 8:47 a.m.
pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…

Doug,

I forgot the basic settings are shown on my flickr site for this photo so here are the settings:

Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Fired

Oh did I mention a good steady hand after 2 cups of coffee? That is critical.
November 30, 2009 at 10:31 a.m.
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

Cool sunglasses.
November 30, 2009 at 10:35 a.m.
Irish (Leslie Swearingen) says…

Paul, there are at least4000 described species of jumping spider, More than 300 species have been described in the United States.
Can you give a brief explanation of what a species is and how on earth they found distinct differences in so many spiders?
I also found out how it jumps so well. It uses muscular contractions in the body that force body fluids into the legs, causing the legs to extend rapidly.
Tres cool, eh?
This is a good web site to find out more.
Oh, I just thought of something, since they can jump up to 40 times their body length can you anticipate military research into trans-species genetics to create super warriors?

http://www.everythingabout.net/articl...
November 30, 2009 at 11:47 a.m.
pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…

Irish,

**warning! real quick and highly simplified discussion of species**

Turns out that there probably is not a good definition of species that works for all types of organism. For sexually reproducing organisms like spiders the biological species concept is the most meaningful.

This definition says that organisms belong to the same species if they could interbreed under natural conditions and produce fully fertile offspring. In practice taxonomists often use the so called morphological species concept. Organisms belong to different species if they look sufficiently different.

Of course how different the individuals should be is a bit arbitrary. Sometimes organisms that look very different from each other are classed as the same species, the domestic dog is a good example. On the other hand organisms that look very similar may not be able to interbreed-"fireflies" are an example that comes to mind. The five or six species of fireflies found in a field may be very hard to tell apart until you observe their flashing patterns,

One thing that is clear is that species boundaries are not always sharp but can be quite messy. Exactly the sort of thing one would expect if species are products of an ongoing evolutionary process.
November 30, 2009 at 8:33 p.m.
notaubermime (anonymous) says…

Irish,

There is a lot more diversity of form in spiders than a lot of people realize. Here is a website which may give you an idea of how diverse jumping spiders can be (be sure to check out the ant-mimics): http://bugguide.net/node/view/1962/bg...

The proportionally great distances that spiders can jump cannot be replicated on a human-sized scale as the amount of force required to launch increases too dramatically. Additionally, while launching may be achieved, acceleration and landing would still present an issue.
December 1, 2009 at 8:16 a.m.
pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…

But of course Spiderman makes it seem so easy to jump like a spider. :-)
December 1, 2009 at 1:21 p.m.
Irish (Leslie Swearingen) says…

Thanks, guys, I watch a lot of sci-fi movies and that was my first reaction when I read how far the spiders can jump. Come to think about it, the spiders must have some sort of urethra to pump the fluid into the legs, which would mean a significant alteration in human physiology. But, I would not be surprised if there were not a lab somewhere with someone working on this.
Maybe cyborg?
notaubermime thanks for the link.
December 1, 2009 at 1:39 p.m.