Jumping spider – Phidippus mystaceus

The ‘moustache’ jumping spider has my vote as one of the most colorful. (The species epithet mystaceus is derived from the Greek mystax, a cluster or row of hairs above an insect’s mouth, roughly analogous to a human moustache.) It is a spider that offers a photographer a good chance of capturing images of the spider’s retina, which is not fixed in place like our own. The jumping spider’s retina is moveable. Because the retina is the darkest part of the eye, you can sometimes look into the eye of a jumping spider and see it changing color as it moves to follow your actions. When it is darkest, you know the spider is looking straight at you, because then you are looking straight into its retina.

Jumping spiders have excellent vision, among the highest acuity in any invertebrate. The eight eyes are grouped four on the face and four on top of the carapace. The two large, forward-facing eyes (AME) are tubular behind the lens, with a well-developed musculature, unique to salticids, that supports and moves the retina – the opposite arrangement of our own eyes. [1]