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Sticker of Green ant-hunter spider
Bug card No. 2044 of 4,939

Green ant-hunter spider

Cosmophasis bitaeniata
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The green ant-hunter spider is a small jumping spider that shines like gold. It has thin silver stripes with black edges on its body. It sneaks up on the nests of green tree ants and takes their babies to eat.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Micronesia and Fiji
Length
6 mm (0.24 in)
Top speed
about 0.8 km/h (0.5 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It eats the larvae of green tree ants.
For real!Photo of Green ant-hunter spider
Picture by Graham Winterflood. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Green ant-hunter spider about 6 mm long (0.24 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 4.5 secondsmoves 37 times its own body length every second

How big is Green ant-hunter spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its golden colour changes as the light around it changes.

2

It is a jumping spider. Jumping spiders hunt by leaping instead of waiting in a web.

3

The male and female look almost the same, but the male is a bit smaller and thinner.

4

Its whole body is only about 6 millimetres long.

you asked

Most asked questions about Green ant-hunter spider

?What does the green ant-hunter spider eat?

The larvae of green tree ants, which it takes from their nests.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cosmophasis bitaeniata
Group
Spiders
Family
Salticidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Salticidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Green ant hunter

Where the facts come from

  1. Cosmophasis bitaeniata (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 Graham Winterflood. CC BY-SA 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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More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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