Common housefly catcher
The common housefly catcher is a small jumping spider that lives in people's houses. It does not build a web. Instead it creeps up on flies and mosquitoes and pounces on them like a tiny cat.
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Fun facts
It has eight eyes. The two big ones in front can move to follow its prey.
People admire how skilfully it hunts mosquitoes and flies inside homes.
Scientists have tested it as a natural helper for getting rid of houseflies.
It has also been found in rice and corn fields in the Philippines, where it hunts among the crops.
Its brown body has darker stripes, which is why it is also called the small zebra jumper.
Most asked questions about Common housefly catcher
?What does the common housefly catcher eat?
Flies, mosquitoes and other small insects that it hunts by jumping on them.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Plexippus petersi
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Salticidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Salticidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Tropical flycatcher, Small zebra jumper
Where the facts come from
- Plexippus petersi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ioannis Magouras. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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