Metaphidippus albopilosus - Metaphidippus Jumping Spider (Elizabeth Maria Gifford Peckham & George William Peckham, 1901)

The God of Horses

Description: Metaphidippus albopilosus is a jumping spider in the class Arachnida, order Araneae, suborder Opisthothelae, infraorder Araneomorphae, subdivision Entelegynae, family Salticidae, subfamily Salticinae, clade Marpissoida, tribe Dendryphantini and subtribe Dendryphantina.

Its scientific genus name comes from the Ancient Greek, in which "Meta" + the genus name "Phidippus" equals "besides the one who spares horses", "after the one who spares horses" or something close to this.

Metaphidippus albopilosus is found in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The subject portrayed is a male and measured, approximately, from the tip of the abdomen to the frontal border of the cephalothorax, around 7mm, perhaps 6mm or somewhere inbetween. The whole body (legs, cephalothorax and abdomen) are covered in white and black thick hair. The abdomen has two antagonizing dark spots proximal to the cephalothorax and a couple of antagonizing longer black spots below them, each with a another black spot next to them about half the length of the longer black spots, but a tad bit thicker. Distally from the cephalothorax there is a large black spot ornamented with white contrasting edges. Two reddish or orangeish pointy spinerets are visible at the tip of the abdomen. Eight eyes are present; two large anterior medial eyes with powerful musculatures and the ability to move the retinas inside the fixed lenses; two smaller anterior lateral eyes; two smaller eyes on each side of the posterior medial part of the cephalothorax and posteriorly to these, two larger eyes on each side of the posterior lateral part of the cephalothorax. The eyes go inside the cephalothorax and connects with the brain; Salticids in general have a very good vision and are possibly one of the most intelligent Arthropods out there, giving margin to the interpretation of "intelligence". Their vision is among the highest in acuity in invertebrates. Their esophagus passes right through the brain, and one branch of the gut actually sits on top of the eyes and brain. When the spider sheds its skin to grow, it has to shed its esophagus and stomach, pulling them out through the brain in the process!

The spinerets are used under many applications such a recovery method (when jumping spiders jump, they always or almost always attach a silk line. That way, if they miss their target they they can climb back up and try the jump again), mark their route, make retreats or molts during the night, aiding in the creation of the egg cases and sperm napkins, and they possibly have many more uses. Males spin webs made from the spinerets to deposit a drop of sperm onto right from the underside of the abdomen. The male then places the tip of the palpus into the sperm, drawing it through the palp's opening into the sperm duct, where it is stored. Once he finds a female, he performs a courtship dance to try to impress her. If she accepts him, he will place his palp against an opening on the underside of the female's epigynum and traps it in place in a groove at her back. The palpus proceed to expand and injects the sperm.

Although a jumping spider can jump more than fifty times its body length, none of its legs has enlarged muscles. The power for jumping comes from a quick contraction of muscles in the front part of the body increasing the blood pressure, which causes the legs to extend rapidly.

The heart extends from the abdomen into the cephalothorax, while the leg muscles are attached inside the carapace and operate the legs such as marionette puppets. Their body size and brain volume are proportionate to a human's, but they have more powerful visual processing.

Metaphidippus albopilosus are docile and possess very weak fangs; although they do have venom and can bite (I've been told but I've never seen a case of this occurrence), these are only harmful to small insects; they are harmless to us and animals. Particularly, I've never seen a Salticid attack anything two times larger than them, and I've handled hundreds - if not thousands - of them many, many times, and even under threat they were ALL docile and some didn't even seem to care.

Sources:

Overall information: www.cirrusimage.com/spiders_jumping.htm

Digestive system anatomy: tolweb.org/accessory/Jumping_Spider_Digestive_System?acc_...

New taxonomy: bugguide.net/node/view/1962

And here: salticidae.org/salticidImages/pages/ecuador/classificatio...

Jumping Spiders of the World: salticidae.org/jsotw.html

Identified by Cesar of Insetologia. Article here: www.insetologia.com.br/2018/07/aranha-papa-moscas-metaphi...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphidippus

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus - reference to the genus name.

PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1425878049

Taken in: Brasil / Ceará / Fortaleza / Guarapes (show map)

Taken on: June 2, 2018

Tags:

arachnida

opisthothelae

araneae

entelegynae

salticidae

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salticoidea

marpissoida

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Metaphidippus sp

sp.

Metaphidippus

Metaphidippus albopilosus

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white

branca

branco

brown

marrom

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black

preta

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Sets appears in: • Dendryphantina • Dendryphantini more » • Marpissoida • Salticinae • Opisthothelae • Class: Arachnida • Araneomorphae • Salticidae • Araneae • Kingdom: Animalia - Insects won't be posted in this album « less

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Camera: Nikon D7000, f/14.0, 1/250 sec, 60mm (=90mm), ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Lens:	60.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/14.0
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	60mm (35mm equivalent: 90mm)
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	+1 EV
Flash:	On, Return detected
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 7.1 (Windows)
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