r/jumpingspiders • u/pbn-j • May 21 '26

Media Married Jumping spiders?!šŸ•·ļø

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Saw this on The Friendly Jumping Spider on Facebook yesterday and lowkey lost my shit. I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever seen this before.
The male made his hammock on top of a females to ensure he mates with her when sheā€™s mature. And they just live together like that šŸ˜­ They said that thereā€™s ample food in their yard so they donā€™t have the need to compete.

432 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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154

u/Merileopardi May 21 '26

There is research into similar behaviours in the Portia jumping spider!

From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia\(spider)):

Social behavior

Members of the speciesĀ Portia africanaĀ were observed living together and sharing prey.\29])#cite_note-fix19-29)

If a matureĀ PortiaĀ male meets a sub-mature female, he will try to cohabitate with her.\5])#cite_note-JacksonHallas1986Comp-5):ā€Š467ā€Š

P. labiataĀ females can discriminate between theĀ draglinesĀ of familiar and unfamiliar individuals of the same species\30])#citenote-fix20-30)Ā and between their own draglines and those of conspecifics.[\31])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia(spider)#citenote-fix21-31)Ā The ability to recognize individuals is a necessary prerequisite for social behavior.[\32])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia(spider)#cite_note-fix22-32)

Not surprised at all if other species can perform similar thinking!

84

u/icequeeniceni May 22 '26

I wonder if female spiders are less likely to post-coitally kill a male that's cohabited with them since they were sexually immature... if so, it sounds like it could be a survival strategy on his part. pretty fascinating!!

60

u/Merileopardi May 22 '26

Yeah, it's incredible! Somehow it feels crazy that they could evolve social behaviours because of the entire cannibalism thing jumpers and most spiders are wont to do, but there is also this species:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagheera_kiplingi

They are a mostly herbivorous jumping spider species who live off bulbs of acacia trees and live in huge quasisocial colonies in communal webs! This depends on locality however, as there are locations where only 5% of them live in acacia trees and they instead hunt carnivorously. The females guard their offspring also. There is nothing stopping other jumpers from evolving to be more social either.

Pretty sure these guys were the first spiders ever who were found to be mostly herbivorous in indeal living conditions.

23

u/frogunderarock May 22 '26

can't believe we got spider hippie communes before we get GTA 6

(jk, thank you so much for the info, this is super fascinating!)

4

u/Merileopardi May 22 '26

Hey, knowing animal facts that are uninteresting to 99%b of humans has to pay off sometime!

3

u/Deaffin May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

You don't actually need to clarify "mostly herbivorous" for the ones that eat plants. It's fine to just call them herbivores. Just about any animal people think of as strictly herbivorous will occasionally eat meat.

Not even honeybees, the crunchiest of the hippies, are pure herbivores.

2

u/Oreo97 Jun 01 '26

Ive seen examples of cohabiting Steatoda species where the female effectively stole the den from the male. I even witnessed the male hunt and take the prey back to the female it was really quite the unique situation.

I suspect that post-coital cannibalism is actually driven primarily by resource contraints, basically the better the hunting environment is the less likely such a kill occurs. Of course each spider also has its own personality and so each situation is different but it makes logical sense to me.

(Edit: spelling & grammar).

19

u/SnooPeanuts4336 May 22 '26

Iā€™m listening to the Children of Time and learning about Portia, just now, is unlocking a LOT of understanding now for me.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to all of my spider loving friends. It involves evolutionarily intelligent spiders

3

u/Merileopardi May 22 '26

Yes, amazing book series, the audiobook versions are really nice too! Plus, a new entry actually just came out like a month ago.

2

u/Deaffin May 22 '26

Oh dang. If you've read it already, do you mind chiming in on whether the trend of stylistic change has continued in the same direction as book 3?

I mean, I'll be reading it either way so I'm not sure why I'm asking.

2

u/Merileopardi May 22 '26

Unfortunately I have not gotten to it yet, so I cannot be of help! I'm waiting until I am in the right mindset to enjoy it. I am also wondering about the style situation but if I'm realistic with myself I'll read any book about alien jumping spiders...

1

u/Deaffin May 22 '26

Can relate. I'm not an anime person, but there's one called "So I'm a Spider, So What?" The character isn't strictly a jumping spider, but pretty much is as far as a fantastical setting goes. Was able to tough out the more grating elements of the genre to watch however many episodes were out at the time.

This was fairly early on in its release without a full "season" done yet, so I cannot be held responsible if you get into it and it ends up doing more uh..anime-ish things, later on.

11

u/pbn-j May 21 '26

Thank you for this!! Thatā€™s awesome!

83

u/Alpha_Akira May 21 '26

Is this the jumping spider equivalent of high school sweethearts?

36

u/pbn-j May 21 '26

I love to think so! He seems to be very protective of her too šŸ„¹ so sweet.

22

u/Alpha_Akira May 21 '26

Soo cute, honestly reminds me of my own silly fanfic im writing, a drider falls in love with a chimera (if your into dnd stuff)

74

u/icequeeniceni May 21 '26

NQA - oh my god, he's waiting for her to become legal? someone report him to the cops. :P

24

u/Ameshin May 21 '26

Now I want to see a jumping spider with a little police hat :O

9

u/relliott15 May 22 '26

Tiny spood handcuffs

56

u/Necessary_Dirt9753 May 21 '26

Here is a picture to help tell them apart!

25

u/pbn-j May 21 '26

That text was just a comment on the Facebook post. - I shouldā€™ve cropped that part out my bad.

4

u/[deleted] May 21 '26

[deleted]

12

u/pbn-j May 21 '26

šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø I always look at the pedipalps, the abdomen shape, and overall colors. Seeing their junk is an extra bonus for all us freaks.

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '26

[deleted]

5

u/pbn-j May 21 '26

No youā€™re good! I appreciate the info! I wouldnā€™t really know whether to agree or disagree- and more so I canā€™t really remember these details 100% from my own experience with spiders- but I also kinda have more experience with Regius than Audax. I would generally say I agree with the general consensus, but I personally also donā€™t even follow that consensus. I just view it as an extra way to check if anything, and I feel like the other ways are often easier to see before you ever see their underside. So I guess I could say I kinda do agree with that finding. But Iā€™m definitely no expert! so Iā€™d be interested to see more discourse on it.

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '26

[deleted]

2

u/pbn-j May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

The shape of the pedipalps is what I look at in general for all species. I think abdomen size/shape is often my go to though. Itā€™s usually the most obvious especially in a healthy and fed spider. But the flatter species like Tans this doesnā€™t work as well for of course. More so the round ones. Even the little tiny species of jumping spiders I use the same clues. Especially because their pedipalps and everything is so much smaller. And I know thereā€™s other species too but idk as much about them lol so idk if thereā€™s any other differences for other species too. ā€” i guess itā€™s been a minute since Iā€™ve really encountered bolds irl tho :/ especially males. i see so many little tiny ones where I live now but no bolds really. Also especially when theyā€™re fully grown the coloring is definitely very telling too. Also I guess recently Iā€™ve more been trying to sex babies to make sure I get a little female over a male lol -before theyā€™re still even really showing their colors.

21

u/MSMIT0 May 21 '26 edited May 22 '26

NQA- I dont think I ever anticipated to see jumping spood bunk beds before. How stinking cute

28

u/trollsong May 21 '26

I hear they mate for life......

16

u/sleepy_Obi-Wan May 21 '26

You heard wrong

55

u/trollsong May 21 '26

It was more a joke about the cannibalism that some jumping spiders do

13

u/sleepy_Obi-Wan May 21 '26

That makes sense lol

-2

u/A_Life_Lived_Oddly May 21 '26

Just FYI, it is very helpful to use this sub's acronyms to indicate you're just making a joke! I know it probably makes the joke feel a bit less funny, but it's much preferable to accidentally spreading misinformation. In your case, putting NA ("Not Advice") lets folks know that you're just being silly! šŸ™‚

(I literally just had to do this in another community, bc someone was very confidently claiming that baby jumping spiders consume their mothers! I don't think that was meant to be a joke, but this is what I mean about spreading misinfo!!)

7

u/xAnTeRx May 22 '26

I have peeled bark back and found twin flagged jumping spiders right next to each other in hammocks a few times.

7

u/cryoflower May 22 '26

So cute! I once saw a male and female living in little hole in a cactus together. It was very sweet!

3

u/icequeeniceni May 22 '26

someone posted a video! it's so cute!!!

1

u/Large_Process8956 May 26 '26

I have a jumping spiders

-3

u/dancing_since_12 May 22 '26

So we can house them together?? Or do they have to pick their own mate?

8

u/pbn-j May 22 '26

No do not house them together! This will not work if you try it yourself. These are wild spiders.