HUGE P. audax.

Motzo

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
99
Today, I was doing work on my Statistics project. I'm doing an observational study on the sizes of large jumping spiders in my area. I could go into a detailed report of how I'm going about doing this, but I shall omit it in favor of brevity.
The two species I primarily looked at were P. audax and Plexippus paykulli. Of course, I expected the P. audax to be bigger than the other species, but things began looking like a tie, until I investigated one audax nest...

Basically, when I looked at the inside, the first thought I had was, "Oh, it's mating," because there was NO WAY one spider could be that big, Besides, it was too dark to fully see the inside. I decide to make an attempt to 'separate them' so I can record their body lengths when I realized that it was one entire spider.
So I measured the big girl at 17mm in body length. Disregarding legspan entirely.
Legspan included, she's about slightly over 1 inch.

Sadly, I am limited to taking pictures via webcam. Right now the lighting isn't good enough for even that.

Has anyone else had an experience with such a large jumper? I have a feeling she's bigger than most Hyllus diardi females.
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
Wow. Pics at this point are absolutely necessary. Beg, borrow or steal, whatever you gotta' do man. :eek: I've seen some big P. audax around here but nothing even approaching a full inch.
 

xenesthis

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
608
Largest jumper to-date

Having seen all three large jumping spider species, P. audax, P. regius and P. octopunctatus, in large numbers, hands-down the largest is a P. regius "giant black morph" found in NW Florida. Two years ago, a mature male was collected that measured 1.25" in leg span. He looked like a miniature tarantula! I can't find his pic right now, but see the large, gravid female in the pic set below.

That particular morph of P. regius is consistently larger than other populations of P. regius and always larger than any P. audax or P. octopunctatus that I've seen yet.

See pics at: www.flickr.com/photos/14734284@N02/sets/72157622182224590/
 

Motzo

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
99
Wow! One and a quarter inch? This one is about 1 inch while stretched out! :eek:
I found her on a long black fence that encloses a nearby neighborhood. It almost exclusively contains P. audaxes as the resident jumping spiders. It does resemble the P. regius "Giant Blue Chelicerae Morph" picture that is in xenesthis' post, except her chelicerae is a deep green.

I didn't realize that P. regius could get that big. I know that, on average, P. octopunctatus got bigger than P. audax, but I remember hearing that the audax had a wider size variability and some could outgrow the larger jumpers.






There's the mammoth, as photographed by an illustrious Logitech Webcam. See how all the detail somehow disappears from the photo-- that's true quality.

Maybe I'll try it on the windowsill with better results, but not now >_<

If anyone can get a hold of any information involving larger jumpers, I'd be glad to hear of it! I've tried to go elsewhere for information, but my searches remain fruitless.
Thanks in advance!

--Motzo
 

TheTyro

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
418
My only mature jumper is a P.regius male. He's the biggest male i've ever seen! I had a mature male P.audax who was literally about half this dudes size. ( the audax was a Jersey jumper though, this regius is a Floridian one)

I stuck a quarter on my monitor when re-sizing the image, to match up the sizes. Hopefully it shows as "actual size" for everyone else, too. I don't have a ruler to measure his body size...all I know is that a quarter has a diameter of 24.26mm's.

He was delivered to my by Xenesthis as a juvenile, I do wonder where exactly he came from though!
 

Motzo

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
99
That is HUGE! My large one can't cover up a quarter like that. I'm actually pondering mating her with a male I found. He has blue chelicerae when he is viewed head-on.
He's also not a bad size for a male. P. audax. I measured his body length at 14 mm with just under an inch of legspan.

Question-- How do you know when a spider is a P. Regius and not a P. Audax? Both look extremely similar. If they are separate as a species, would hybridization between them be possible?
 

ZergFront

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
May 2, 2009
Messages
1,956
Wow, my Phidippus when they were mature only covered up a penny. :eek:

Could be regius. I've had hard times seperating the two..
 

TheTyro

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
418
That is HUGE! My large one can't cover up a quarter like that. I'm actually pondering mating her with a male I found. He has blue chelicerae when he is viewed head-on.
He's also not a bad size for a male. P. audax. I measured his body length at 14 mm with just under an inch of legspan.

Question-- How do you know when a spider is a P. Regius and not a P. Audax? Both look extremely similar. If they are separate as a species, would hybridization between them be possible?
Bugguide says this " The majority of audax specimens are black with three white spots. Note the iridescent scales and flat (without gloss) black patches on the abdomen. These markings help distinguish audax from similar species such as P. regius."

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2006

The difference being that P. regius doesn't have the distinguishable patches of nonglossy black, I think the whole abdomen is supposed to be the same sort of...black. For males, anyways. I honestly am not positive on that though. Looking through the photos of some regius...I get confused.

I just rely on stuff like this whenever I'm unsure. Regius http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/entcirc/ent223.pdf

audax- http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/phidippu/audax-ha.htm

I'm dying to see the giant regius picture mentioned before, if only we could use that guys genetics and get those giant jumpers we all wanted. :D

Though that seems to be happening on its own.
 

Greatwun

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
28
Was wondering if someone could identify this species of Phidippus? I caught 3 but the only one pictured is a huge female which measures slightly over 1". The other two look exactly the same but measure at 3/4". At first I thought it was P. regius (gray form) but it doesn't look much like the pictures on the web. They were caught in the central Florida area. Sorry about the bad quality of the photos, I need a better camera.






 

xenesthis

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
608
central FL jumper ID

Pic is too fuzzy to confirm, but it's either one of two species:

P.otiosus
P. regius "orange morph"

P. regius has three distinct color morphs. The black morph is in North FL. The gray morph is in central FL and the orange morph is in south FL. In central FL, all three can be found, but the gray morph represented the most.

P. otiosus is found around live oaks.
 

Greatwun

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
28
Yea its definitely P. otiosus. Does anyone keep any Phidippus species in colonies?
 

Phidippuszk

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
38
Largest jumper to-date

Having seen all three large jumping spider species, P. audax, P. regius and P. octopunctatus, in large numbers, hands-down the largest is a P. regius "giant black morph" found in NW Florida. Two years ago, a mature male was collected that measured 1.25" in leg span. He looked like a miniature tarantula! I can't find his pic right now, but see the large, gravid female in the pic set below.

That particular morph of P. regius is consistently larger than other populations of P. regius and always larger than any P. audax or P. octopunctatus that I've seen yet.

See pics at: www.flickr.com/photos/14734284@N02/sets/72157622182224590/
What's a regius giant black morph? A male regius? Or different?
 

xenesthis

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
608
Geographical variation in this species exists in Florida. The females in North Florida tend to be black, the females in the middle of Florida tend to be gray, and the females in South Florida tend to be orange. Not all, but within these ranges, there is a tendency to see this. Also, the North Florida P. regius, on average, and in my opinion, tend to be larger than the ones south of Tampa-Orlando-Daytona Beach.
 

Phidippuszk

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
38
Geographical variation in this species exists in Florida. The females in North Florida tend to be black, the females in the middle of Florida tend to be gray, and the females in South Florida tend to be orange. Not all, but within these ranges, there is a tendency to see this. Also, the North Florida P. regius, on average, and in my opinion, tend to be larger than the ones south of Tampa-Orlando-Daytona Beach.
Thanks. N one more thing, my spiders keep making sacks at the top of the cage so I urine it when I open it. Anyway to prevent it from going straight to the top? This weekend I'm goin to look for the p apacheanus any spots u recommend? I live in citrus
 

Phidippuszk

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
38
Thanks. N one more thing, my spiders keep making sacks at the top of the cage so I urine it when I open it. Anyway to prevent it from going straight to the top? This weekend I'm goin to look for the p apacheanus any spots u recommend? I live in citrus
Lol I mean ruin not urine
 
Top