|
|
Green Jumping Spider - Mopsus mormon
FAMILY SALTICIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Green Jumping Spiders that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female, body length 12mm,
- Green Jumping Spiders are also known as Northern Green Jumping Spiders. They are beautiful and large Jumping Spiders. They are the largest jumping spider found in Australia.
- Male, body length 15mm
- The spider's body is bright green in colour with dark red head. The front pair of big eyes cover half of its dark face, below are the very large fangs. On the abdomen there is the white colour on green with two black lines. Theirs legs are green to dark red in colour. Above pictures show the male, around its head there is the hairy white clown.
- Female, body length 10mm, will grow up to 18mm.
- Female Green Jumping Spiders do not have this clown. She is a little bit larger than the male when fully grown. She has the white and brown pattern on her thorax. The above pictures show the spider just caught a Pyralid Moth.
-
- Green Jumping Spider females build their nests and egg sacs between two leaves. They preys on insects and other spiders. The above second picture shows the female just captured a Lynx Spider.
- We sometimes find the spiders actively hunting on plants during the day. Australian Jumping Spiders are not toxic to human but this Green Jumping Spider is known will give a painful bite. From the large fangs shown in the above pictures you can imagine how painful it could be. Anyways no human deaths are attributed to their bite.
- When the jumping spiders move or jump, they always leave a safety line of silk behind. If the jump fails the spiders can crawl back to its original position and this prevents them from falling down.
-
- The Green Jumping Spiders like to hunt and build nest among long sword shape leaves. The above two pictures show a female on the entry of her nest. We found this nest in early summer, and noticed a interesting feature. A male and a female lived together in this nest. There were three compartments, male and female lived in different compartments. The middle compartment was the egg sac. The male was in the top and the female in the bottom compartment. Each compartment was like a tunnel, with opening at both ends. We also found another Green Jumping Spider nest near by. This nest, as most other jumping spider nests we found, was only the female with her egg sac, not male was found.
