It is all to easy to call these 'myths' but in fact it is just a misunderstandings about jumping spider care that gets passed around on the internet and suddenly becomes fact. In reality there is a lot more to some of the things you read once you take a deeper look, or like me, have several hundred jumping spiders to learn from.
Feeding Jumping Spiders Fruit
I get it, watching these little cuties sipping from a colourful piece of fruit is adorable fodder for social media, but when I see it or hear about it I have to shake my head. Jumping spiders are purely insectivores, and although they may drink the moister from fruit, they do not eat fruit, nor do the seek fruit out in the wild to add to their diet. Their digestion is not set up to deal with high sugars in fruits which are normally already broken down by their prey. Most fruits have acidity levels which can damage their fangs and mouth parts, and don't get me started on the fruit pulp left on their mouthparts being a magnet for mites, urrghh ick! There have not been studies on introducing fruit into a jumping spiders diet that makes me feel comfortable to suggest, or condone it. "But they seem to enjoy it and haven't shown any health issues" Neither did my dog when he ate an entire christmas tin of Quality Streets, but I wouldn't go feeding it to him intentionally or tell others it's fine for them to feed their dog chocolate. If you want to give your spider a safe treat, feed their prey insects the fruit. This will flavour the insect and offer safe sugars and nutrients.
Jumping spiders can only change their appearance during a moult Not exactly true. I have seen first hand how losing the little hairs on the exoskeleton can change their appearance. The hairs on their legs, face and abdomen can rub off, along with the wider, featherlike hairs on their heads. This can be because of rubbing against decor, or when squeezing through tissue in their travel pots. It is easily seen in adults as they do not moult again to regain these hairs, younger spiders will soon have a fresh new look after a moult. Their chelicerae can also change without moulting, again it is more common in adults whoses chelicerae scale-like plates move to refract a different light over the months often resulting in a dull green sheen rather than the iridescent shimmer you normally see on Phidippus Regius. Newly moulted juveniles will have dark, sometimes black chelicerae as the damp plates lay close to the fangs, once they dry the plates move to refract beautiful colours once more.
Jumping spiders only tolerate being held Now, I haven't had a conversation with a jumping spider, well not one where they talk back to me, but this is what I've observed on a daily basis. While cleaning, misting a feeding, many of my spider will come out for a wander about the spider shelves. The can go up, left, or right very easily, instead they jump onto my hand and casually walk up my arm. A few of the higher shelf inhabitants even aim for my face. They will happily sit on me, clothing or skin, and be content to stay there no matter how much I try to coax them onto something else or back into their home. Yes they do wash their feet after running on my skin but too many prefer my hand over multiple other spots outside of their enclosure, so I am not convinced this statement encompasses all Phidippus Regius. It is likely there will be shyer individuals who prefer to avoid human interaction, but all of mine, especially during a photoshoot, make a beeline for me probably because they trust my scent and class me as safe space to roam.
Jumping spiders don't need a lot of room Well compared to a horse or a dog, this is true, but too often the care for tarantulas washes over into the care of jumping spiders when the truth is that their care is completely different. Tarantulas are indeed beautiful, but they are also very simple creatures. The world beyond their immediate vicinity doesn't exist to them, and their feelings are rather basic; hungry, threatened, moulting and so on. A juicy locust could wander around the edges of an enclosure for days and never tempt the hungry spider any further from it's safe spot. A jumping spider is very different. Universities and institutes have been completing many studies on Salticidae in the last few years and found they have the cognitive functions akin to mammals and not other invertebrates. Such as simple problem solving, learning, awareness of greater areas around them including what is a face of a larger creature; I see this myself as many spiders turn to watch me as I come to the spider shelves in the morning. They have also been observed to have twitchy legs and rapid eye movements during sleep that scientists realise is REM sleep. Yes you heard that right, jumping spiders dream. So with such an intelligent little creature we should be providing a suitable enclosure, with enough space between the top and the substrate to satisfy their need to be up high and feel safe, and lots to explore when out hunting. As they use the top inch of their enclosure try some magnetic decor and change it out regularly (unless it's a favourite napping spot or has their hammock in/on it). I highly condone the use of these decorative play parks that you can let a jumping spider out to explore, they are not overly expensive or make your own from hot glue and foraged natural bits, or as it's just for playing on and not living with, a Lego obstacle course!
Selling spiders too early/young is bad practice. Once again this is one of those things that is a misunderstanding rather than be simply true or false. It's commonly believed that it's not done this way because babies need more specialist care, this I believe is false, the babies need the exact level of care an i5 or adult, except smaller homes and prey. In Europe and America, jumping spiders are sold after dispersing (days after their first moult), where as here in the UK we wait till at least 4 moults have passed. This is because the might of natural selection is merciless in those early moults. Not every spider that hatches is meant to survive even when the threat of predators and starvation are negated by the kind care of a breeder (hence 200+ babies in each sac), this is a natural die off period we call failure to thrive. As they moult the percentage of those who will fail to thrive decreases and after the 4th moult almost all will continue to thrive, meaning those rehomed have the best chance to live long happy lives in their new homes. You'll notice that US and European breeders who sell between i2 and i4 charge much less, one: because less time has been spent raising babies, and two: because there is a chance the baby spider won't reach i5. Here in the UK it is common that we breeders go through the heart ache of raising babies who may pass in their first few months, so that a keeper will receive babies with the best possible chance to thrive and mature. I personally wouldn't buy an i2 or i3 for the same price I would buy an i4 or i5, but I would purchase one if the price reflected the risk that it may not make it to maturity.
Males don't live as long as females
This is one of those sad misconceptions that leave males an unpopular choice for keepers looking to buy a new addition to their spider shelves. It's easy to believe this as males tend to mature quicker, this helps to stop them from mating with females from their own egg sac as they will be too young still, but a biological clock doesn't start counting down just because they have matured. As I have had well over 100 jumping spiders as personal pets I can say it's not that clean cut. In the wild males typically live 1½ years but this is because they forgo eating to find a mate and so starvation and malnutrition are more to blame than old age. But in captivity with attentive keepers who feed stubborn males, they can live well over two year, with several of my Floridian males hitting 2 and over before they start to slow down. On the same hand though I have had females pass just after their first year with egg cycle complications. A lot of how long a jumping spider lives for is genetics, care, and unseen biological factors. Males are adorable, friendly and I am flattered every time one of them throws his legs wide at me in a courtship dance, even if I wasn't breeding I would still have a horde of them on my shelves.
Males hide away when they mature
Another reason males don't get rehomed as quick as females, but here's the thing: Males do spend a lot of time in their hammock putting down sperm onto a web to suck up into their pedipalp (yep that's what goes on in there) but females spend even more time making egg sacs and sitting in there waiting to lay infertile eggs or until their body reabsorbs them in a cycle of about 4 weeks, if they dally too long these cycles overlap and she may only come out every 3 weeks, so you may not see them either once they mature. The only solution is to buy more spiders so you always have some to look at.
Males are boring colours
Yep, that is the exact phrase I've read a few times in my years as a breeder. My reply is "You're not looking close enough". My most treasured spider colours are silver males, they spend most of their growing life as silver balls of fluff with bright teal chelicera only getting their black and white look at sub-adult or adult. Even then though there are different shades to this look. I have males with blue sheens, grey sheens, and even green sheens to their black. And just as a females chelicerae can sometimes turn green in maturity, males can gain red sparkles on their blue or green smiles. I admit with the black it can make them look a little more spidery than the females but I promise you they are worthy and loving additions to any spider addicts shelves.
The quicker they moult, the shorter their lifespan Moulting fast can be because of being overfed or having larger prey, some jumping spiders are just speedy growers. This will not shorten their lifespan, their lifespan is mostly down to genetics and environment (excluding mis-moults and accidents). This doesn't mean we should be overfeeding our spiders, being too tubby is not good for the spider and can result in fall and ruptures.
Once they mature they start to slow down This is true but not in the way it is commonly used, many think it means doddery and old, near death kind of slowing down. In fact it means calmer, more likely to sit and nap, not so obsessed with spoodering around looking for food. One: because they can hunt much larger prey now to keep them full for longer and two: because they can afford to kick back and relax a little now. The near death part normally comes around the 2 year mark of life depending on genetics, it's sad to see it happening but even then you many have many more months together. I have a Bahamas who is about to celebrate her third birthday with me and she's still climbing well and giving me the run around on a daily basis.
You can tell a locale from what the spider looks like
Uhhhhh no. While there distinctive colourings may look easy at first it really isn't. We have a collection of high orange and grey legged females from the Blue Mountains, Sierra De Baorucos, Dos Gardenas and Soroas who at first glance look almost identical, it comes down to mask shape and orange areas, but even then it's hard to see. We have the pale females from creams, whites, greys and light fawns across the Floridas, Apalachicolas, Bahamas, all of which can come in various other shades of soft oranges, chocolates, deep fawns, and dark mixes of tan and black. Now mix in that some locales might have been mixed-up, mis-sold or contain crossed locale lines in their genetic history that might alter the colour of your spider. So unless imported there is no solid way to guarantee or prove a locale by just looking at your spider. You can tell the age of a spider by what they look like Oh how I wish this was the case, it would save me hours of writing their moult stage on their pots to track their progress. Now I can say that it is easier to guess the age between i1 and i3; i1s are teeny shiny black dots, i2s are teeny shiny black dots with teeny dots on their abdomens you can see under a macro lens, and i3s have duller abdomen with a greenish tint and easy to see white dots. At i4, i5 and i6 they can start to show more colour but some may get easy to see colour at i4, where as some might not get that colouring till i6, that's why I have to log their stages as some may look like an i6 two moults earlier. Their general size is no help either as babies from the same sac can be different sizes.
I'll probably add more to this over the next few years, but this is more than enough for now. Any questions let me know.
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