bold jumper
(Phidippus audax)
Conservation • Description • Habitat • Biology • Distribution • Taxonomy
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Description |
Bold jumper is an extremely common jumping spider in eastern United States. It is a medium-sized spider but a very large jumping spider. It is highly variable in appearance. The female body is ⅛″ to ¾″ long, not including the legs. The male is smaller than the female, ⅛″ to ⅝″ long. The front part of the body (cephalothorax) and abdomen are black with white spots and are covered with short white hairs giving them a fuzzy appearance. The male is more contrastingly marked than the female. The cephalothorax is massive, high, and longer than wide. Its sides are rounded. The abdomen is widest in the middle and tapered to the end (posterior). It has 4 pairs of white spots and 4 pairs of squarish matte black spots. The first (anterior) pair of white spots is sometimes absent or inconspicuous. The second pair is usually, but not always, fused into a large central spot. The third pair are elongated, appearing as short stripes. The fourth (posterior) pair are much smaller and sometimes inconspicuous. The black spots are covered with short black hairs, the white spots with white hairs. On juveniles the light spots are often orangish-red. There are four pairs of eyes arranged in three rows. The first row of of four eyes is recurved. The middle pair of these is by far the largest of all of the eyes. The second row of two eyes is closer to the first row than it is to the third. The second and third rows form a square. The jaws (chelicerae) are small. The basal parts of the chelicerae are iridescent green or blue. The legs are short. On the male they are boldly striped white and black. On the female they are faintly striped. |
Size |
Female Body Length: ⅛″ to ¾″ Male Body Length: ⅛″ to ⅝″ |
Web |
No web |
Similar Species |
| Regal jumper (Phidippus regius) lacks matte black spots on the abdomen. It occurs in southeastern United States, not in Minnesota. |
Habitat |
Old fields, prairies, open woodlands, backyards, gardens, and human houses |
Biology |
Season |
Spring to fall |
Behavior |
Bold jumper hunts during the day by sneaking up and pouncing on its prey. It releases silk while jumping as a drag line to prevent falling. It does not hunt at night. It will bite if molested but is usually too quick and wary to be caught. It can jump 10 to 50 times its body length. |
Life Cycle |
Mating takes place in late spring or early summer. When courting, a male will wave its forelegs and palps, showing off his colorful chelicerae. After mating the female produces up to 6 sacs of 30 to 170 eggs each during the summer. She lays these egg sacs under the bark of logs, creates a silk shelter to protect the hatchlings, and stands guard until the hatchlings disperse. Juveniles overwinter in a silk cocoon under bark or some other protected space. Adults mature in the spring. |
Food |
Insects, spiders, and possibly other small invertebrates and vertebrates |
Distribution |
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Sources |
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| 5/2/2024 | ||
Occurrence |
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Extremely common and widespread |
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Taxonomy |
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Class |
Arachnida (arachnids) |
Order |
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Suborder |
Araneomorphae (typical spiders) |
Infraorder |
Entelegynae (entelegyne spiders) |
Superfamily |
Salticoidea |
Family |
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Subfamily |
Salticinae (typical jumping spiders) |
Tribe |
Dendryphantini |
Subtribe |
Dendryphantina |
Genus |
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no rank |
Phidippus audax complex |
Subordinate Taxa |
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Synonyms |
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Common Names |
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bold jumper bold jumping spider daring jumping spider white-spotted jumping spider |
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Glossary
Cephalothorax
The front part of a spider’s body, composed of the head region and the thoracic area fused together. Eyes, legs, and antennae are attached to this part.
Chelicerae
The pair of stout mouthparts, corresponding to jaws, in arachnids and other arthropods in the subphylum Chelicerata.
Palp
Short for pedipalp. A segmented, finger-like process of an arthropod; one is attached to each maxilla and two are attached to the labium. They function as sense organs in spiders and weapons in scorpions.
Visitor Photos |
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Alfredo Colon |
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Kim Khamthanie |
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| Found in my mailbox! |
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Brian Montgomery |
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Need help identify them I think the … images are of a jumping spider - the wife found him on the kitchen counter. She was NOT amused. |
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Babette Kis |
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Phidippus audax bold jumper |
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Mike Poeppe |
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Joy G |
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Many seen in patio area, on driveway and car and a few coming in through bedroom window. Have been bitten overnight in bedroom twice. |
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Susan R |
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In my car! |
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Terry Hayes |
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| … here's a beautiful jumping spider I saw last summer in my yard in Montrose MN. |
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Kathy |
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it was just sitting next to my storage space by the lock |
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Mackenzie Rhymes |
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I was sitting on my front steps and in my peripheral vision I see something moving slowly. I look over and see a Phidippus Audax crawling towards me. I yelled out to my sister to come take a look and startled it which caused him to step back and halt for a minute. I got up to take a picture and let him crawl around on the landing of the top of our steps. He then burrowed himself in a dark area in the corner of the landing. First time I’ve come across a Phidippus Audax in Minnesota. |
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MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos |
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Slideshows |
Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper) |
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Visitor Videos |
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Other Videos |
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Phidippus audax jumping spider 4K |
About
Published on May 28, 2014 phidippus audax jumping spider shot in 4K on a Sony FDR-A100. Music is from the youtube creators library. |
Macro Video of an Adult Female Phidippus Audax Jumping Spider |
About
Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009 Found on a fence at a friend's ranch last June. This is about as large as jumping spiders get (~15mm or so body length) but adult females vary in size and some Phidippus species can easily exceed 20mm body length. Music is a cover of The Ronettes' 1963 hit, "Be My Baby" written by Phil Spector. For more spider photography and videos, head on over to www.ThomasShahan.com |
Adult Male Phidippus audax Jumping Spider |
About
Uploaded on May 30, 2009 A pretty good sized adult male found in a dumpster. |
Macro Video of an Adult Female Phidippus audax Jumping Spider |
About
Uploaded on Jan 18, 2009 A macro video of a very large (15mm or so) adult female Phidippus audax jumping spider I found in a light fixture. Set to a recording I did back in December with a vintage Japanese Alvarez classical acoustic and a Kay Swingmaster hollowbody electric. For my jumping spider and insect photos, go here: |
Jumping Spiders Mating-Phidippus Audax |
About
Published on May 18, 2012 Two phidippus audax jumping spiders mate. The spider at the very end with the red spots is a very young phidippus audax, pretty much still a baby. |
Visitor Sightings |
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| Kim Khamthanie 5/31/2023 |
Location: Coon Rapids, Minnesota Found in my mailbox! |
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| Alfredo Colon 8/29/2022 |
Location: Albany, NY |
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| Alfredo Colon 8/16/2022 |
Location: Albany, NY |
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| Alfredo Colon 8/4/2022 |
Location: Albany, NY |
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| Brian Montgomery 6/22/2022 |
Location: Prior Lake, Scott County Need help identify them I think the … images are of a jumping spider - the wife found him on the kitchen counter. She was NOT amused. |
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| Mike Poeppe 6/22/2022 |
Location: just west of Houston, MN |
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| Joy G 6/6/2022 |
Location: Eagan, MN Many seen in patio area, on driveway and car and a few coming in through bedroom window. Have been bitten overnight in bedroom twice. |
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| Susan R 6/3/2022 |
Location: Lakeville, MN In my car! |
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| Babette Kis 9/17/2021 |
Location: Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI |
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| Brian C 6/4/2021 |
Location: Lakeville, MN Male with bright green chelicerae stroking them as a clear mating display. I saw this Romeo two evenings in a row in my backyard. I hope to see him again! |
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| Babette Kis 10/6/2020 |
Location: Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI |
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| Kathy 6/20/2020 |
Location: Monroe County, New York it was just sitting next to my storage space by the lock |
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| Mackenzie Rhymes 9/18/2019 |
Location: South Minneapolis, Minnesota I was sitting on my front steps and in my peripheral vision I see something moving slowly. I look over and see a Phidippus Audax crawling towards me. I yelled out to my sister to come take a look and startled it which caused him to step back and halt for a minute. I got up to take a picture and let him crawl around on the landing of the top of our steps. He then burrowed himself in a dark area in the corner of the landing. First time I’ve come across a Phidippus Audax in Minnesota. |
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| Alfredo Colon 8/8/2019 |
Location: Woodbury, Minnesota |
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| Alfredo Colon 8/29/2018 |
Location: Woodbury, Minnesota |
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| Terry Hayes 8/31/2015 |
Location: Montrose MN … here's a beautiful jumping spider I saw last summer in my yard in Montrose MN. I think it's a male due its smaller size (about 1/4") and the slight clubs on the palps. The bright sun highlighted the gold on him. |
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MinnesotaSeasons.com Sightings |
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Created: 11/11/2015 Last Updated: © MinnesotaSeasons.com. All rights reserved. |