They are my favourite spiders, while most spiders wait in webs for an insect to get caught, jumping spiders actively go out and stalk their prey. It makes more much more personality and activity!
Recently I've spotted some on the cone flowers in the flowerbed. These flowers have long lasting blossoms and attract a number of pollinators and other insects trying to get some sweet nectar. Perfect hunting grounds for a jumping spider!
If you zoom in really closely on the first image you can spot the very small spider's very small dinner!
Can't really tell much about it other than it was an insect with red eyes.
This might have been the spider catching the insect, or at least searching within the dense top of the flower.
A different angle, you can see the reflections on the wing of the prey item!
The yellow flowers make for such a wonderfully contrasting background for the spider, don't you agree?
Not too certain of the species of the first spider, it's an immature female and there are quite a few that look very very close at this stage of their life.
A different spider that is much easier to ID is the male Hasarius adansoni.
It's black with very visible white patches on the pedipalps as well as the back of the head and front part of the abdomen:
Despite or perhaps because of the contrasting colours it blends in very well on the black painted wood of the bookcase.
Viewed head-on, we can see the subtle red colouring around its eyes.
As I said they are quite active, now it's moved from the black bookcase to a light coloured cabinet:
Cropping in on another shot the lateral eyes are also very big on these spiders and are used to detect movement, both of potential prey and potential threats.
Thank you for taking time to read my post!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did getting the shots!
Soon I'll add some more about mantids!