This is an adult male Regal jumping spider - Phidippus regius. His fangs, when retracted, are bright blue and turn this irridescent emerald when agitated or courting. I read that these spiders are easily tamed and can be induced to jump from hand to hand. The bite stings, but only for a short time.
Here he is not so bothered by us. His fangs are retracted and blue.
He's a very handsome chap! What size is he?
You go ahead and pet him and I will just enjoy his beauty in photographs. Because if he jumped on me I would probably jump over the moon!
You and me both, Zany!
Hil, he's about the size of a US nickel, maybe a bit bigger stretched out.
LOL Zany!
And you Arlene, remember "get it off me, get it off me!!" when you had that big old garden spider on your sleeve...SHUDDER!! I managed to reach out and brush him off but only because I HAD to!
This message was edited Jun 10, 2005 6:19 AM
Ummmmmm, i'm sorry, never seen a US quarter Stacey ;-
I was afraid of that! LOL...make a circle (like an okay sign) with your thumb and forefinger...a bit smaller than that.
Now i get the picture - he's quite a large gentleman then.
Thanks *g*
Nice pic! Looks like a neat spider, although I must admit jumping spiders make me nervous ever since I was bitten as a kid. I prefer tarantulas.
Oh, I'd like to see one of those, not hold it, just look at it.
