Victor

Jumping spiders like to appear in my line of sight when I am supposed to be doing something else. I was opening the front gate, ready to take Frida on her own little walk - when one dared me to ignore it from my side wall. 

How could I?

What I did not expect is that the spider did not try to avoid me. The ones I've met so far would quickly hide behind a flower, or under an improvised overhang, or scale the wall to put some distance between them and me.

But this one was audacious as its name suggested. A veritable Bold Jumper.

Of course it would return my stare with confidence. It appeared just as curious as I was. It looked right at me, straight into the camera. I could see its pedipalps moving in front of its face, as it lifted its head to size me up.

Now the big question (big because I want to give "it" a name): Was it a male or a female? Initially I thought it was a female, due to the brown color and orange markings, the relatively large size (8-10mm), and the tufts of hair on the sides of her "head"; but the pedipalps looked a bit thicker than a female’s, and its abdomen more slender, so that the spider was more front-heavy (compare to Meg).

I'll go on a limb - or rather, eight limbs - and call him Victor. There's always the option to switch to Victoria later on.

After I took a few photos, I offered him my hand, maybe an inch or so from the wall he was on. I probably expected he'd turn down my offer, like all his colleagues before him. But instead…

He jumped on it! He jumped onto my hand!

The audacity. The confidence. 

I must have recoiled slightly, because he fell off just as he landed. But fear not: His stretching dragline was now safely attached to my hand, and he was effectively abseiling down. I offered him my other hand to land on, close to the ground; he sprung off of it, and hid in the weeds that grow in the crack alongside the house.

This is the 6th Bold Jumper I encounter on the South side of the house, without counting the one that was touring my kitchen sink (more on that later). Are they all different individuals? Or could this be Jinny? (And I had Jinny's sex wrong all along?)

I feel that Jinny might remember me, given that I treated her (or him) to a nice myriapod… but since I can’t confirm it, I’m going to assume today's jumper is a different individual, and stick with Victor.

Victor is missing one leg. One hypothesis (unverified and probably just romantic) is that he may have lost it in a fight I witnessed a few days ago (again, right when I was ready to walk my pups, leash in hand). Two spiders grappling, locked in head-to-head, for more than 5 minutes. One looked like a larger female, the other could have been a small female, or maybe a young male. More on that encounter in a separate post.

It's hard to say if one of those battling spiders was Victor, but how many jumping spiders can share such a small hunting territory, without serious disputes ending with the demise of the weakest? How likely is it that I can meet a new tenant every day?

I did not see how that battle ended, but if it is indeed Victor who survived that fight, he truly is… victorious.

Elena Corriero

All photos shot handheld

OM 60mm, f/8, 1/500, ISO 200 + Godox V350 & AK diffuser