Talk:Jumping spider

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Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need. Spiders To do: As the project is currently just starting, our more experienced editors are working on the project infrastructure, classifying articles, and listing/assessing red links. You can join the project, or just check out what can be done. Your assistance is welcome! Clean up the article Spiders. (find "storyline", equal level of depth of information) Check out if pages are named correctly, eg.: several family pages seem to have names that only apply to a subset of the family. --Sarefo 02:47, 31 July 2006 (UTC) Move pictures from en:Wikipedia to WikiCommons, eg.: Image:Trifasc.jpg Image:Saint Andrews Cross.jpg Image:Il gardenspider stoop.jpg Image:Aeth1a.jpg Image:Newspider.jpg Image:Picta2a.jpg Image:Keys1.jpg Image:Wolf spider 3411.JPG Translate pages from other WPs into English Expand the following articles (and many, many more): Arachnology Determine spider pictures find example species for every spider family check the Spider gallery, upload pictures to the commons if necessary. much, much more, check the Project page If you complete one of these tasks, please remove it from the list and add your achievement to the project log.

I'll never forget the vivid article in the Scientific American many years ago on the Portia (spider), a jumping and webspinning spider which preys on other spiders. The spider has two remarkable behaviors - one is cryptic movement, in which it moves while waving its legs randomly as if it was a fluttering leaf. The other is the way that it intentionally vibrates spider webs in order to lure the spiders. I hope someone who knows about spiders will write an article for Wiki on Portia. -Willmcw 23:42, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

FYI, a group of editors, starting with user:OldakQuill, have created a nice little article. -Willmcw 10:12, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 The jumping spider on Mt. Everest 2 Jumping mechanism? 3 gliding spider 4 Bad Geographics? 5 Walking on glass

[edit] The jumping spider on Mt. Everest

There has been reported a species even on Mt. Everest, which feeds on insects blown there by the wind. Why is its name NEVER mentioned, and why isn't there any information about this spider?

The "tan jumping spider" on this page is actually a lynx spider. Family Oxyopidae, not Salticidae. You can tell by the eye arrangement-- Salticidae has two very large median eyes. Oxyopidae does not.

[edit] Jumping mechanism?

How exactly do these spiders jump? Do they have muscles that are very strong or do they employ a different mechanism?

They are using their blood: "Spiders extend their limbs by forcing blood into them, much as you pump hydraulic fluid into a backhoe's digging arm to extend the claw. This system is remarkably efficient, the mechanics of a jumping spider's legs enables it to leap 25 times its own length. If a spider loses too much blood, however, it no longer has enough internal pressure to fully push its legs out. A human in that predicament . . . well, there's always Viagra. A spider is fated to curl up and die." If they had used muscles instead, their legs would have to be incredible thick. They are most of all using their most posterior pair of legs for jumping.

Very interesting. Thanks for the answer

[edit] gliding spider

I checked the gliding spider 'Maratus volans', and cannot find any references on it that it actually glides (although the species name volans implies this). As far as I found out (and wrote in the species article), they use these flaps for display. I could not contact the anonymous author that made the change at 23:51, 27 February 2006. if anybody has a source for this, that would be nice. --Sarefo 12:49, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes I just removed that part simply because nothing is baked about this supposed flap gliding anywhere. --uniquinous

Found a possible source, don't know how relyable it is. [1] - Bakuhatsusama 23:34, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bad Geographics?

What is up with the map showing that these things are everywhere - is that a mistake?? Jgreenberg 02:38, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

No, I think it's true. There are over 4,000 species of jumping spider identified so far, and they're everywhere. RobertAustin 13:07, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Walking on glass

Walking on glass depends on finding minute imperfections in the surface? Does not current theory invoke something like Van der Waals' forces instead? Myron 09:06, 19 January 2007 (UTC)