# Jumping spider - Portia



## mindstorm (Dec 7, 2010)

Found this fella a week ago. My friend and I agreed that from the top or from far, he/she looked like a piece of bird <edit>.(first pic)

It is a small one, maybe 5-6 mm in body length. Looking queer with alternate waving legs and pedipalp, it moved with much deliberation. But when my friend caught it, it did made a mad jumping attempt. As it calmed down, I took it out to examine and surprise that it was quite hand friendly. However i was shock at how far this small spider could jump when it wanted to..right from the base of my palm to land almost at the front of my elbow.

I had him in a small container and when we reached home, I was surprised to see how it had built itself a roosting perch with its web smack right in the middle of the container, seemingly suspending itself in midair(pic 2)... which reminds me of a scene in the movie..."Silence of the Lamb" where the genius killer is sat right in the middle of his solitary confinement.

After 6 days of food rejection, including a fly, small cricket, a small unknown house spider(orb maybe) and a similar size thiania(it would just look at them and ignore them), today I finally got it to feed on a small Cosmophasis female.
As it creep up on its prey, i expected it to grab it like all other spiders do, but instead it strike and then saw the cosmophasis ran off like nothing happened!
The cosmophasis then walked about my hand as per normal...until 15-20 seconds passed, it slowed down almost to a halt... and then as i reintroduce it to the Portia, he took it up. Portia hunts like a snake!

here's a cool video how they do the same to a orb web spider
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/ani...by-nature-australian-jumping-spider-video.htm

some info on them
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Portia_fimbriata.html
from some other website, it looks like the one i'm having is a fimbriata.
"Other jumping spiders of the genus Portia exhibit aggressive mimicry, nest probing, or cryptic stalking. P. fimbriata is the only species that exhibits all three behaviors."

amazing how much they are studied
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/203/22/3485.pdf


----------



## Vespula (Dec 8, 2010)

Wow! Now that is a cool spider! I've never seen one with a look quite like that...  I'll have to show this to my friends!


----------



## hupababy83 (Dec 8, 2010)

Hahaha my mom is named Portia!


----------



## telow (Dec 8, 2010)

bird <edit> jumping spider hahahahahahahahaha 

thats cool tho pretty neat


----------



## Silberrücken (Dec 8, 2010)

mindstorm, AWEsome pics!!! Thank you so much for sharing! I love the Portia spiders! There's not a lot of info on them IMO. Is this Portia labiata? 

Great pics, and the last one is my favorite! :clap:

S.


----------



## Deroplatys (Dec 9, 2010)

Stunning Portia sp. 
Good luck in rearing it


----------



## EXOPET (Dec 9, 2010)

oooooohh nice

they do that funny walk so that they do not appear to be alive to other creatures

nice find mate


----------

