Friday, May 31, 2013

Jumping Spiders: Cuddly

That's not sarcasm. (EDIT: Whoops, left out "not." That's odd.) I know that for a while there, I'd happily post fairly creepy nature videos, but this isn't creepy in the least unless you're a severe arachnophobe.



The thing about jumping spiders is that, even by spider standards, they're incredibly harmless. (The vast majority of spiders are essentially harmless if you're not a bug.) There are fairly big, terrifying jumpers that regularly kill praying mantids and dragonflies, but won't even attack frogs that are smaller than they are. I've never heard of jumpers that are venomous, I've never heard of jumpers biting people even in self defense, and I've never heard of jumpers acknowledging any vertebrate as food.

They're more harmless than basically anything, and they're fuzzy to boot.

Heck, this particular general variety, which is common where I live, reminds me of my dad. (And they're easier to get along with than Dad is, to be frank. But then, it's easy to get along with a jumping spider: Don't squash it, and you're cool.)

For that matter, if you're an arachnophobe, Portia spiders, which are jumping spiders, are probably your best friend-they're spiders that eat only spiders.

-Signing off.

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