Jumping spiders just got smarter

[DreadMan]

I am not sure if this is 100% correct, but I think that jumping spiders are self aware. Today I was feeling ambitious so I took out one of my jumping spiders and put it against a mirror. After a few unsuccessful attempts of trying to escape, the spider finally noticed itself. For a few minutes it just stood there, but then it started to move around, constantly checking itself out, sometimes waving a leg or touching the mirror. Does this show a sigh of self awareness? Keep in mind that this was a female, so there was no chance that it was preforming a mating dance. I have always seen jumpers as intelligent, curious and playful. I have seen people training them, but this really sheds new light on things.

 

[ChiefinOnSomeSkunk]

That is really cool to hear! I have been interested in jumping spiders and am currently waiting for my local reptile shop to get some in, hopefully by end of May. I hope you further this research and continue studying with them to test their intelligence.

 

[Snailientologist]

Do you think if they saw prey in the mirror they would look at its reflection or turn around?

 

[basin79]

Whilst jumpers are the brains of the arachnid world I'd highly doubt they have the capacity to recognise themselves.

This behaviour will more than likely be your female interacting with "another female of the same size". As in not something they can easily eat or be eaten.

 

[Cororon]

I have seen a clip from an old documentary about the Portia jumping spiders, and in one experiment a Portia watched a very simple simulated Portia spider on a computer monitor and tried to mimic the cyber-spider's moves. Some kind of communication. The defensive, threatening and mating displays are well known, but there may be another form of communication.

Self-awareness is a human concept, and while jumping spiders are smart, they don't care about philosophical things like that. But they are at least sentient beings with very active minds. It's easy to get the feeling that there is "someone" inside that little body. That it's not "only a spider".

Found this video of Genifer the Spider:

 

[DreadMan]

I have seen a clip from an old documentary about the Portia jumping spiders, and in one experiment a Portia watched a very simple simulated Portia spider on a computer monitor and tried to mimic the cyber-spider's moves. Some kind of communication. The defensive, threatening and mating displays are well known, but there may be another form of communication.

Self-awareness is a human concept, and while jumping spiders are smart, they don't care about philosophical things like that. But they are at least sentient beings with very active minds. It's easy to get the feeling that there is "someone" inside that little body. That it's not "only a spider".

Found this video of Genifer the Spider:

I totally agree. And that media recording is extremely similar to to what mine did. Although jumping spiders eyes are very evolved, I believe that for us to do a self awareness test on them we would need make a very different test other than just a mirror. I remember how people did a modified test on dogs, because a mirror wouldn't work for a dog because of their bad eyesight. They found out that they can recognize their own smell. The same thing was done with manta rays. There are some factor for this though. I am willing to bet that no animal, even humans, can recognize themselves the first time they see themselves in a mirror. To really measure intelligence, we just need to look at problem solving skills and such, which jumping spiders have already passed.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

For a few minutes it just stood there, but then it started to move around, constantly checking itself out, sometimes waving a leg or touching the mirror. Does this show a sigh of self awareness?

By self awareness, I think you mean self recognition. But no, what you observed leans more toward the jumping spider not being able to recognize itself in the reflection since it touched the mirror and not itself. Self recognition is tested by making a mark on an animal somewhere within its field of vision, like the face or head, and if the animal investigates the marking by touching it on its own body when seeing it in a mirror then you know the animal recognizes itself. This has been done with orangutans and elephants with great success and there are videos on YouTube showing the experiment. So you might want to try again by making a small, but obvious, mark somewhere near the large eyes on your jumping spider and try again.

 

[goliathusdavid]

By self awareness, I think you mean self recognition. But no, what you observed leans more toward the jumping spider not being able to recognize itself in the reflection since it touched the mirror and not itself. Self recognition is tested by making a mark on an animal somewhere within its field of vision, like the face or head, and if the animal investigates the marking by touching it on its body when seeing it in a mirror then you know the animal recognizes itself. This has been done with orangutans and elephants with great success and there are videos on YouTube showing the experiment. So you might want to try again by making a small, but obvious, mark somewhere near the large eyes on your jumping spider and try again.

This is the traditional experiment. I'm not sure it would make sense to do with a jumping spider though - it's been done with most chordates and it's primarily only been successful with some primate species and, as @AphonopelmaTX wrote, elephants. My favorite attempts have been with lemurs (a group of animals I've had the pleasure of working with) who are just so obviously in it for the food that they will do whatever gets them more . If you want to try with a jumping spider you are welcome to, but I think it is highly unlikely you are witnessing self recognition.

 

[DreadMan]

This is the traditional experiment. I'm not sure it would make sense to do with a jumping spider though

This is true. While jumping spiders have very developed eyes, it does seem as though their primary trait, like most spiders, it their sensory hairs. To truly see if they can self recognize, we would need a very modified test that is accustomed to the spiders. Maybe self recognition is a stretch, maybe it isn't. I still do think that jumping spiders a more intelligent than we see them to be, or maybe its that cute look that gives me a bias.

primarily only been successful with some primate species and, as @AphonopelmaTX wrote, elephants

Also true, but in more recent studies that have had more technology and more research, more and more animals are being noted as self aware. My favorite example is the manta ray, which is one of my favorite animals. There are just to many factors to put together. Maybe ALL animals are self aware, but half of them lack the eyes, arms or other traits to be counted as such. How could we tell is a snail is self aware if it has nothing to show it? I really have no point here, im just kinda ranting, but if you get what im saying...

 

[The Snark]

Cognition. Is the cerebrum entirely devoid of all cognitive and memory functions? It has already been established that the neurons in the cerebrum can adapt to different purposes as in recovery from a CVA. Slow, but happens.

 

[goliathusdavid]

What's really fascinating about intelligence is that honestly, we have very little way to measure. The brain to body ratio has proven time and time again to be inaccurate, brain size, more a tool of psuedoscience than anything else, and IQ tests? Practically meaningless.
And that's not even getting into consciousness. Whole books have been dedicated to the subject of animal consciousness- the best probably being Sy Montgomery's The Soul Of An Octopus. We know so little about the human brain that the animal brain, and jumping spider brain, have only just barely begun to be touched. I'm also gonna be honest, I have ZERO understanding of the neuro-biology on non-chordates. I have trouble enough with our spined friends.

 

[The Snark]

I think the key word here is adaptive. Without adaptive, evolution would not happen.

 

[DreadMan]

Just if yall wanted to know, my jumping spider is in my pfp. does anyone know what species it is?

 

[DreadMan]

 

[Tarantulafeets]

We all know that it's looking in the mirror and thinking:
"dang I'm cute"

 

[ThatSquareChick]

This is true. While jumping spiders have very developed eyes, it does seem as though their primary trait, like most spiders, it their sensory hairs. To truly see if they can self recognize, we would need a very modified test that is accustomed to the spiders. Maybe self recognition is a stretch, maybe it isn't. I still do think that jumping spiders a more intelligent than we see them to be, or maybe its that cute look that gives me a bias.

Also true, but in more recent studies that have had more technology and more research, more and more animals are being noted as self aware. My favorite example is the manta ray, which is one of my favorite animals. There are just to many factors to put together. Maybe ALL animals are self aware, but half of them lack the eyes, arms or other traits to be counted as such. How could we tell is a snail is self aware if it has nothing to show it? I really have no point here, im just kinda ranting, but if you get what im saying...

I know this is an old thread but it’s a really good one: I often feed lots and lots of jumpers mainly Phidippus A and R but I actually have about 9 Salticus scenicus and a couple of eris militaris females (they are very prolific housemkers) whom I have because they’re so darn cute.
There’s differences between the larger and smaller species that I think directly relates to this in a cool way!
The bigger species like to go back directly to their own webs, they will crawl past other spider’s old hammocks to get back to their own even as young as three weeks. I have tested this and only have the barest of anecdotal noticing, not actual proof of anything but if I place a P. A. in a new cup, they will seem stressed and crawl around it for hours. If I place a bit of their old web in there, it only has to be one strand, they instantly seem to calm down and start building a new hammock. This seems especially true of bred females who will reside inside the birthing hammock even after the babies have gone. If I try to relocate a female after her brood is weaned but before she builds another sac then she will seem to eternally search for her maternity home. If I put a tiny bit of old webbing in there they will calm down and accept the new home.
I think this can be substituted for the mirror test since they want to avoid webs that are not their own and can recognize their own webscent.
I did this with some virgin female webbing in a mature males enclosure and they stopped patrolling all corners and concentrated on where the female’s webbing was placed. It worked with maternity webbing too but they lost interest way faster than the virgin female web.

I honestly believe but am willing to change my mind that spiders identify themselves and others through the chemicals and pheromones released in webbing.
Also recently I read an article that lined up with something cool I picked up on time lapse. When I went back to look and see if I had caught a large female Phidippus Audax spinning a egg sac but instead captured many hours of her seemingly sleeping. She twitched not unlike you’d see a human who was having REM sleep would or a dog running in its sleep.
REM sleep is one of but not the only hallmark of a “higher than always fight or flight” level of intelligence. This suggests that jumpers might be as good at interacting WITH the world as animals like dogs or cats. I certainly have noticed the behavior most like a housecat.

 

[The Spider Prince]

My jumping spider (P. undatus) lives in my bathroom (hard to explain, but its the best room in the house for heating and lighting basically lol) and she has seen herself in the mirror a few times. She's very timid and isn't a brave eater, so it would explain the fact that she hates her reflection. Every time she sees herself she freezes, tries to make herself look big and scary by raising up her arms and keeping her eyes trained on the "threat" before running away as fast as possible.

HOWEVER, recently I noticed that she has begun (seemingly) getting confused by MY reflection. When she's on my hand, and far enough from the mirror so she can't see herself, she will look at me, then look at the me in the mirror, then back at me, as if she's confused that there's two of me! It's quite adorable really. lol

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

Whilst jumpers are the brains of the arachnid world I'd highly doubt they have the capacity to recognise themselves.

This behaviour will more than likely be your female interacting with "another female of the same size". As in not something they can easily eat or be eaten.

Awhile back I was looking for wild P. regius and I found two females of the same size with different coloration, so I decided to put them both on my hand to take a picture, which I thought would be fine for a brief period since I've seen videos of people handling multiple captive regius females.

Instead they stared at each other for a few seconds, one turned around to run away and the other immediately pounced on and tried to kill it. I barely managed to separate them before a lethal bite was delivered.