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Sticker of Apache jumping spider
Bug card No. 0120 of 4,939

Apache jumping spider

Phidippus apacheanus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Apache jumping spider is a big, fuzzy black jumping spider with a bright orange or red back. Its jaws shine a beautiful green.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
United States, Mexico and Cuba, in grasslands, fields and deserts
Length
0.3 to 2.2 cm (0.13 to 0.87 in)
Top speed
about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless

Watch out! Read about its close cousin on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
Like all jumping spiders, it hunts small insects by stalking and pouncing on them.
For real!Photo of Apache jumping spider
Picture by David Hill. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Apache jumping spider about 2.2 cm long (0.87 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.4 seconds

How big is Apache jumping spider compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Big females can be up to 2.2 centimetres long, which is huge for a jumping spider.

2

To meet a girl, the boy does a zigzag dance and waves his legs and little arms.

3

If the girl likes him, she sways from side to side in a dance of her own.

4

It often lives in the hills and mountains, between 500 and 1800 metres high.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Phidippus apacheanus
Group
Spiders
Family
Salticidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Salticidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Phidippus apacheanus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by David Hill. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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