Jumping spiders
This is a large family of spiders, with a wide variety of size and colouration. Jumping spiders range from 1 to 22 mm, but most are small. They often have contrasting bright or iridescent colours, especially the males. Their legs are relatively short.
They are generally recognizable by the shape of their cephalothorax (the front part of a spider’s body, combining the head and thorax) and particularly by the size and location of their eight eyes.
Four of the eyes are located at the front of the cephalothorax, and the two anterior median eyes are especially large and mobile.
The other four eyes are located in back, giving jumping spiders a 360° field of vision.
Jumping spiders do not spin webs. They produce silken threads that they use as safety lines when leaping, or to make shelters.
