When you think of really really colorful jumping spiders, you might think of the Australian genus Maratus. These spiders are also called Peacock spiders, because they are as colorful as a male peacock, often with lots of blue and red. I couldn’t find any info about Maratus in Singapore, maybe they are not yet introduced. But who needs them, when you can find S. semiglaucus? Isn’t that a wonderful spider? I’m calling it cf. semiglaucus, because while I wrote this post, I noticed that there is something weird. And then I found another blog, proving that there is something weird. I mean not weird, just maybe our spider is a different, or even undescribed species. Cf. is short for “confer”, what means compare. So you’d use it to say “compare it with the description of semiglaucus, if you want to know if it’s really a semiglaucus, because I have doubts.”.
Let’s have a look at the taxonomy first:
The family Salticidae contains around 6000 species in 662 genera, making it the largest number of species in any spider family. They are devided into seven subfamilies. Strangely, 90% of all species are in one subfamily, the Salticinae. The genera Siler and Maratus (plus one called Mopsus!!! and dozens of others) are in the clade Salticoida. There is a second clade called Amycoida. Just from looking at this list on Wikipedia, I would say there are 7 times more genera in the clade Salticoida. Let’s see if we find a jumping spider from the other clade or even subfamily in future! The nose-bearing spider, as well as the hoaxed spider are also Salticoida. Oh, the German nectar-slurper is also in the same clade. No surprise to me that S. semiglaucus also likes nectar!
The genus Siler has been described by Eugène Simon. I wondered what that means, because it is such a simple, short word. I couldn’t get a copy of the original description (which would also be in French). Silere means quiet, what would be true for any spider. Siler is also a tree, a willow.. If you know the background of that genus, please leave a comment!
Semi glauca would be half – blue. That is an easy one. Same for Salticus, that is Latin for jumping. All together we have a partially blue, quiet jumping spider. One common name is Jade jumping spider, what is a bit weird. I don’t see any green on this spider, only blue, purple and orange. When you google Siler species, you’ll find mostly photos of S. semiglaucus, and you will notice that the region around the eyes is not always purple, but sometimes indeed green. I’m wondering now if that is an angle-depended iridescence, or two color forms. I didn’t pay attention when I took the photos, you just don’t look for things you don’t know right? YouTube has it all, so I saw this video of a Jade Jumper where the cephalothorax is green at any angle of view. So are there two color forms? It is not uncommon that spiders change colors when reaching adulthood, like it is mentioned on spinelesswonders. So maybe we have a premature female, that is not yet jade.
The word jade is also used as a not so nice name for either a horse or a woman. I really hope that this is not the meaning for our tiny cute spider. Mysterious names you have, brood snatcher!
Our spider is a female by the way. Males have very hairy front legs, which they use for communication with other spiders. It is obviously myrmecophagic, what means they eat ants. It is not 100% clear if they also other prey, a source from India says so. Another paper said they would eat anything if you starve them for two weeks. Chapeau science!
An ugly-sounding term used often for Siler spp. is brood snatcher. Sometimes ants move their larvae from one nest to another. They would carry the ant larvae between their teeth, and it seems that our spider takes that as an opportunity to grab a larvae as snack. It is for sure easier to kill, but I wonder why the ants don’t fight back. I guess the spiders figured that out over the years (with ant smell?). The spider I found went the extra mile to kill a fully grown ant.
This report of S. semiglaucus for India has some nice photos and lists the distribution of all Siler spp.
And then I found this: Since the spiders are so colorful, it is obvious that they are able to see colors. Some researchers tested whether you you train this spider to get a benefit from choosing one color. What do you think? Yes, they can learn that something nice is in a red container, but not in a green. That’s cool! Same as us, with many information, they will forget that within 24 hours already. Perhaps it helps them to recognize a certain area with good chances for food.
With the info that the color changes from purple to green when reaching adulthood, it seems this is like a green light for males to approach a female in a romantic manner! Chapeau nature!
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