Photo batch round 1!

As promised, here are a few photos of some amazing salticids that will be featured in the upcoming book. While not all of these will necessarily make the cut, the species will all be present.  All photos were taken by Jonathan Knudsen.

Female, unidentified.

Female ant mimic, unidentified.

Male ant mimic, unidentified but different species from the one above.

Male Phidippus audax.

As always, we welcome your feedback!

Spiders have Teeth?!

Sort of...

If you take a very close look at some spiders, including several species of salticid, you will see on their chelicerae (fangs) a few small bumps.

Male,  Salticus sp. arrows indicate cheliceral teeth.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male,  Salticus sp. arrows indicate cheliceral teeth.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

These bumps (red arrows) are known as cheliceral teeth and are used to masticate (chew) prey in much the same way as our teeth.  The major difference being that while our teeth come in a variety of shapes and sizes so that they can be used for different purposes, the cheliceral teeth on a spider are only used to break down prey items into smaller bits.  The particular specimen shown above is a male from the genus Salticus.  In this case it is very easy to determine the sex of the spider as only males have the very enlarged chelicerae, and only when they are sexually mature.  Normally, however, the cheliceral teeth and fangs are not so exposed.  The picture below presents a much more normal view of this same specimen, very much how we would find one in nature.

Male, Salticus sp. Top down view with scale bar.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male, Salticus sp. Top down view with scale bar.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

As you can see from this photo, the chelicera are normally folded up and are frequently covered by the pedipalps (the two small appendages on top of the chelicera in this photo).  As a result, virtually the only people to have ever seen a spider's cheliceral teeth are arachnologists who are trying to identify the specimen, as the presence and shape of the teeth are a diagnostic character used in many dichotomous keys. 

You may have noticed that both of these photos are not only of the same specimen but are also by the same person.  That is because these photos, and the few that follow, are all preliminary photos for the book mentioned in last week's post.  From now until the book is released, we will strive to release at least one new photo a week so that you, dear reader, will have an idea of what is to come.  We hope you enjoy the photos and would love to hear your feedback on them!

Male, Salticus sp. front view.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male, Salticus sp. front view.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Platycryptus undulatus, Top down view.  Photo Credit: Matt Adams

Face on view of an unidentified salticid.  Photo Credit: Jonathan Knudsen

Face on view of an unidentified salticid.  Photo Credit: Jonathan Knudsen

Exciting things to come!

I am very pleased to announce that one of my collaborators and I have just recieved funding to make a small book on local jumping spiders!  The book (which will be published in pdf form on this blog for free) will feature full color close ups (macro photography), a dichotomous key to species and a few hands-on activities aimed at teaching kids about jumping spiders.  While we have only just started work on the project, we are hoping to have the bulk of the photos taken by the end of the summer and will definitely be posting some of our favorites as we progress.

If there is anything that you, my dear readers, would like to see in the book, please tell us in the comments!  We will make every effort to address all of your reasonable requests.  In the mean time, stay tuned for more Salticid-tastic updates and sneak previews of the book.