Strange Jumping Spider Behavior?

[SqueakyClam]

Hi there! I've noticed some unusual behavior from my jumper in the past few days and wanted to get some idea what's going on with her. I'm a new spider owner, so please bear with me if this is all normal stuff lol. I'm just a little anxious. And I tend to type a lot. Beware of paragraphs!

I have a Phidippus regius. I'm not sure how old she is, but I've had her since around mid-December (about six months) and she was certainly not a little baby sling when I got her. She's always seemed relatively healthy, made a nice hammock for herself and ate without problem. However, in those six months, she's only ever molted once (that I know of) and it was a little over two weeks ago as of me writing this. The molt seemed to go fine, no missing legs nor did she get stuck, but since then she started acting strangely.

The first thing I noticed was that she stopped hanging out in her hammock. She now sits low on the side of her enclosure; not on the ground, just sitting there low on the wall. She's put down bits of silk, but hasn't started building another web. She just sits in that spot. Sometimes she taps her legs around, wiggles her abdomen and spinnerets, or rotates in place a bit, but that's all she does. She won't even go back to her hammock at night.
I wasn't really worried about that at first. She was still eating okay, so I figured she was just being weird. But then when I went to mist her enclosure yesterday, she had a massive freak-out. She fell off the side and flailed spastically along the bottom of her enclosure, before stopping and sitting in what I can only assume was shock. She's always been skittish around me (not wild caught, I got her from a breeder, I just assumed she's a nervous type so I try not to bother her too much), but never to this extreme! It freaked me out, so I stopped to watch her and make sure she was okay. Within a few minutes she seemed to snap out of it and crawl up to the top of her enclosure. Still not in her web. But she didn't seem hurt.

I'm sure I got no water on her while misting. I have always been careful and wary of where she is. She was sitting on the front of the enclosure and I sprayed near the back of it. A few hours later, I experimentally sprayed the mister next to her enclosure - not in it, just to the side of it - and she flinched so hard she fell down again.
I waited overnight and tried again this afternoon, spraying first right next to her enclosure (again, not even in it), and it happened again. Flailing down on the ground like she was having a seizure. I'm not sure what's going on with her, and it's starting to worry me a bit. She's never had this reaction to misting before.

Is she just older and clumsier now? Do I have a spider with bad anxiety? Or is something else going on?

The only change in her care since the molt has been a switch from mealworms to bottle flies. I can't imagine that would cause this unless something is really wrong with those bottle flies.
I started to wonder this morning if it had anything to do with her old molt still being in her hammock. Maybe this is a silly thought, but I wondered if she thought another spider was in the enclosure? And that's what was freaking her out? Either way, I took the molt out today (which unfortunately destroyed her web, but it's not like she was sitting in it anyway) and I'm hoping that will change something.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Isaax Critterz]

You're spider does not like the mister.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

I believe @NMTs keep jumpers. Any ideas?

 

[NMTs]

I believe @NMTs keep jumpers. Any ideas?

I've got some P. audax, yes, but this is a new one for me. Maybe the OP can try using a pipette or something other than the spray bottle to add water to the enclosure? Jumpers, like most spiders, are very sensitive to vibrations and it seems like the spray bottle is vibrating at a frequency that the jumper doesn't tolerate well. Additionally, the changes in behavior could be due to old age - most Phidippus species only live 1-2 years, and if you received a grown specimen 6 months ago, it could easily be within that range. Changes in behavior including lack of webbing, trouble climbing, harder time hunting, less of an appetite, etc., are all signs that your jumper is aging and it's health is declining.

 

[SqueakyClam]

Oh man, this is an old post. But I thought I should leave an update detailing what happened in case anyone else stumbles across this with similar problems, or maybe the three people who responded here are curious.

Not long after she started this behavior, she got significantly worse. Spasms grew more frequent and violent until she couldn't hold onto the side of the enclosure anymore and just sat on the ground. This was without me using the mister at all. She soon became unable to walk properly and would just constantly fall over, seizing and shaking, and I would carefully use a paint brush to right her again. She lasted for about a few days before one particularly nasty spasm knocked her down, and when I tried righting her, she appeared to spontaneously poop and then instantly die.

So... yeah, very, very strange. I'm not sure what could have caused this. I've since heard about "DKS," which from my understanding is just symptoms and not an actual syndrome, which sort of matched her behavior... but this is supposedly thought to be caused by toxins such as pesticide, and we had nothing like that in the house. My theory is that something must have been wrong with the bottle flies I was giving her, because that was the only thing that changed about her care. That or something went wrong with her molt and it presented itself 2 weeks late.

I do not think she was a mature adult yet, she was quite small compared to adult female P. regius I've seen since. But who knows, maybe she had other problems I wasn't aware of that stunted her growth.

Anyway, that was all. Thanks to the people here who offered suggestions, regardless!

 

[Brewser]

I would guess / conclude and agree 'something in the bottle fly' is the cause of Her demise. Seems like the most plausible explanation.