Look what I found a few days ago!
Jumping spider
An adorable little jumping spider! Didn’t expect to see one with the cool weather we had last week, but there it was, cute as could be. Naturally, I had to take photos, but then I released it back outside. I just love that metallic green sheen on the mouthparts! Jumpers are the best.
Really cold weather coming for a lot of people this week – hope everyone stays warm!
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The Dragonfly Woman 
I agree, very cute!
Yay!
Not to detract from the cuteness, ’cause they are cute… I have a bunch of real small ones that I call them all *Hoppy*… Persistent and annoying lil’ guys… Always want to jump on me while on the porcch… Anyway, a member of this family jumped on and killed a female Bar Winged Skimmer this past Summer right in front of me… She was paralyzed in less than 3 seconds and quit *breathing* in about 3 to 4 minutes… I was pretty upset, as the Dragonfly was a *regular* visitor I’d named Lucia (originally, I thought it was the male twin named, Luca, that was killed)… I didn’t kill the spider… But deep down, I wanted to smush it pretty badly… I sent 2 photos of the spider to a local Entomologist, who ID’d the spider… Very sad experience… But they are cute…
This is the raw side of nature, all creatures want to live, grow and reproduce, a process that requires energy at the expense of the lives of other creatures. Nature brings home to me the sacredness of life, and the brutal reality that death is the other side of living.
Truth, Eric… That’s what kept me from getting *revenge* for Lucia… The spider was just doing what he does for a living… I do think his eyes were way bigger than his stomach in this case… Eventhough he was about 16 – 17 mm around, including the legs… Body was about 7 mm across…
Sorry… Meant to write, ALEX… I’m John, so you can write *Jan* and we’ll be even haha
No worries :-)
Hmm… I would imagine I would have had the same mixed feelings that you did, but I suppose the spider needed to eat too!
Nice find, though I doubt many people would be happy if the spider jumped at them.
The dawning of spring is slowly manifesting with an increase in activity by both plants and animals in Colchester, UK.
Perhaps not, but I don’t mind if they jump on me at least. :)
That’s kind of adorable!
Glad you think so! Jumpers are spiders that I think look even cuter when you get a good look at them than they do at first glance. A lot of them have bright colors and wild hairdos, but you need to get in close to see them!
Do I see 4 eyes in there in this cutie little fellow?
Four big eyes, yes, but you can see two of the four smaller eyes to the left and above the leftmost of the large eyes too. They’ve got 8 altogether!
I’m surprised to see it too! It was warm last weekend, but not that much to see the insects out!
Nancy
Agreed! I thought it was rather out of place, but maybe I just haven’t noticed one before?