A week or so ago saw a tiny jumping spider on a wire and batten fence, so small it could easily hide behind the thin wire and not be seen. I had started to give these fences a good looking over when the chance came along as day or night they have a lot of interesting life on them.
But very surprise to see these tiny big eyes looking back at me. On closer examination the little jumper was rather flat and elongated. I am no expert but I have been able to take a few photos now as I have been able to find these spiders every day that I have looked for them and believe I now have adult males, juvenile males and possibly a female. I have measured them and the males are 3mm and the one female that I have found 2 1/2mm. Clearly all the same species, they seem to all have distinctive creamy white palps and noticeable spinnerets. I dont think that I would ever of seen them had they not been on the wire fence, bush and Totara trees were near by.
So if anyone can give it a name that would be great. I have put it up on a few sites with out any luck so it could be one of the many un-described jumpers here in New Zealand.
I will show an adult male, juvenile male and female.
Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
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Re: Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
I-naturalist "seek" says its a "Fencepost Jumping Spider"
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Re: Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
Its true that they look very similar and I can see how that id would come up but the fence post jumper is a European species not a NZ one! Plus its a whopping 10mm, this one full size is only 3mm. Guess this one will have to go down as one of the many un described ones! Thank you for taking the time to look.
- David Riddell
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Re: Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
My first thought when you said it was flat and elongated and lived on fences was Holoplatys appressus, but it's clearly not that - far too small and nowhere near flattened enough. Yes, it's probably undescribed species - according to the NZ Inventory of Biodiversity the NZ salticids have never been formally revised. It lists over 50 species, but a lot of names are given as "nomen dubium", and the list concludes with "Gen. et n. spp. (>160) 160E", which as far as I can make out means there are at least 160 endemic species probably undescribed.
- David Riddell
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Re: Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
I was sitting at our outside table (mostly made from swamp totara) on Boxing Day when my daughter drew my attention to a tiny jumping spider, about 3mm long or perhaps a bit less. It looked a bit like this one, though I'm not sure it's the same species, the most obvious feature was the very prominent bright white (not creamy white) palps. I tried to get some photos on my phone, not easy at it was very active, so apologies for the quality, especially alongside flossiepip's! The second photo is particularly bad, but does at least show the brightness of the palps. This is in Gordonton, just north of Hamilton.
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Re: Anyone name a tiny jumping spider?
Nice spot! It does look somewhat alike and these little jumpers are very hard to spot let alone photograph. I am sure that the one's that I have seen must be wide spread!