Jumping Spider - Behavior

Behavior

Jumping spiders are generally diurnal, active hunters. Their well-developed internal hydraulic system extends their limbs by altering the pressure of body fluid (hemolymph) within them. This enables the spiders to jump without having large muscular legs like a grasshopper. Most jumping spiders can jump several times the length of their body. When a jumping spider is moving from place to place, and especially just before it jumps, it tethers a filament of silk (or dragline) to whatever it is standing on in order to protect themselves if their jump should fail. Should it fall for one reason or another, for example if the prey shakes it off, it climbs back up the silk tether. Some species, such as Portia will actually let themselves down to attack prey such as a web spider apparently secure in the middle of its web. Like many other spiders that leave a practically continuous silk trail, jumping spiders impregnate the silk line with pheromones that play a role in social and reproductive communication, and possibly in navigation.

Certain species of jumping spiders have been shown by experiment to be capable of learning, recognizing and remembering colors, and of adapting their hunting behavior accordingly.

Read more about this topic:  Jumping Spider

Famous quotes containing the word behavior:

    Growing up human is uniquely a matter of social relations rather than biology. What we learn from connections within the family takes the place of instincts that program the behavior of animals; which raises the question, how good are these connections?
    Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)

    There is a striking dichotomy between the behavior of many women in their lives at work and in their lives as mothers. Many of the same women who are battling stereotypes on the job, who are up against unspoken assumptions about the roles of men and women, seem to accept—and in their acceptance seem to reinforce—these roles at home with both their sons and their daughters.
    Ellen Lewis (20th century)

    Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)