Why do zebra spiders show an awareness of being observed by humans, despite their small size? I’ve seen it before and it is both peculiar and remarkable.
If this is the guy you mean, jumping spiders in general (like this species) have extremely good vision. Note the very large forward-looking eyes, and they have other pairs looking in other directions. Jumping spiders are visual hunters and have to be very aware of their environment.
Awwww. Cute spiders (really!) so thanks, Colibri!
Yes it is that spider.
I’m aware they have good vision, which explains how they can see people, but it still doesn’t fully explain their very singualr reaction. The Wikipedia article very briefly mentions this behaviour and says their binomal name which means “theatrical jumper” is due to this behaviour.
When I observed the behaviour I was standing close to the spider not particularly looking at it as it climbed across the printer in my office. I live in urban SE England not far from London and the wildlife you usually see is not particularly diverse or eye-catching and I assumed it was a money (dwarf) spider, but its stripey pattern caught my eye. I noticed it was a jumping spider, which I found interesting as I had never seen one in England before and in fact wasn’t even aware that any species lived in England. At this point it realized it was being observed and stopped almost theatrically turned round and looked me straight in the eyes with its head askance at a quizzical angle and waved one of its legs at me, as if to say “oh hello!” IIRC it also followed my gaze when I moved my head. It only returned to whatever errand it was doing when I moved away from the printer.
Possibly it was a threat display, but what I found odd is that given our comparative sizes (me about 1900mm and the spider about 4mm) is why it would even take an interest in me? I would think that even for a larger (for England) invertebrate like a european or german wasp it wouldn’t make much of a meal, let alone a large mammal. It also wasn’t disturbed by my presence, it was disturbed by me looking at it.
This is a slight hijack, but I feel compelled to note that your final paragraph there reminded me very strongly of the SCP Foundation article about SCP-1470, the jumping spider that was intelligent and could speak telepathically to humans. Particularly the “Excerpts of final interview” where he comes to a shocking realization.
Obviously I am not claiming I found a telepathic jumping spider, but the behavior is genuinely quite surprising and a little disconcerting! I think it is partly because their two big eyes, hair and compactness make them look a little mammalian and also they have a visual awareness and ability to react to situations that is unexpected in a creature that size.
Heh heh … if you ever DO discover a telepathic jumping spider, I hope you tell us about it before it dies.
I agree the behavior you described (and heck, the behavior of jumping spiders in general) is quite remarkable and often disconcerting, and I also agree that they do have a much more person-like look about them than most spiders do. (Jumping spiders are certainly the ones I most often hear people describe as “cute,” as purplehorseshoe did, and the story of SCP-1470 actually made me quite sad at how scared the poor little guy was.)
I wonder if they have a special response when large moving shapes suddenly stop moving; perhaps it often means a big predator has suddenly noticed them, so they start acting in the way you described as a means of focusing in on the threat and getting ready to jump away if necessary? Oh, or maybe they do that if they see large shadows stop moving, so they quickly look around to see if they’re in danger.
Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head. Where are our spider experts? Is lynne-42 around?
According to the Wiki they have a complex mating ritual. It could be that seeing two forward facing eyes they are reacting as if humans are another spider. You might be able to draw two dark circles on a piece of paper and get them to react in the same way.
Jumping spiders engage in complex mating dances in which they wave their legs around. Some of the most amazing are by the Australian Peacock Spiders.
You don’t know that it realized it was being observed, and your description of it holding its head askance is blatant antropomorphising and incompatible with spider morphology.
Before you can draw the conclusion that this is a behaviour related to the presence of a human, much less related to the observation of a human you need to know it doesn’t happen when there’s no human around, which takes more dedicated studies than what you’ve got to go on here.
I was describing my experience of the behaviour ands I said it was a very pronounced behaviour and totally singular in my experience of animals of that size. The behaviour inevitably lends to an anthropomorphic description, but I did not think it was actually saying hello!
I found the behaviour very interesting and so looked it up and it is a known behaviour for this particular species and is in fact what gives them their scientific name P. scenicus. I am open to the possibilty that my observation of it was not the cause of its behaviour, but it seems unlikely.
Wow. Thanks for posting that link.
Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing, but it also seems to react to the movements of my hand when I try to catch it. Maybe it’s just sensing the shadow?
While its vision may be excellent, spider-wise, does it have enough of optical resolution to discern a human face from a football?
There’s a bunch more videos on other species of the same group by the same guy.
I suspect they probably can’t get much resolution at more than a few inches. All they can probably sense at a distance is shapes and shadows. I doubt that they could determine you were looking in their direction from several feet away.
Be careful: “And if thou gaze long into a spider, the spider will also gaze into thee.”
I, for one, welcome our new spider overlords.
Serious question, how well are we able to qualify spider’s visual acuity?
The behavior was only noticeable when my face was a few inches from the spider (they’re tiny spiders, to be able to distinguish features like eyes you really have to be very close)
Jumping spiders esp. Zebra jumpers most certainly can “see” humans and can tell if you are focused on them or not. If you doubt it, find one and test it for yourself - it’s easily verifiable.
If you stare at the spider, it will stop, orient toward you, and act in ways that cofirm it can notice your gaze. If you look away, it will begin moving again.
Also, if you reach for them, they will freeze and get all defensive. They’re amazing
Ooooops - managed to miss this thread and so glad that it has resurfaced.
I think there are two factors at work in the impression you are getting. I have exactly the same experience with jumping spiders and you can play with them getting to watch you move. I had wonderful fun with one of the largest jumping spiders when I was in the US, a Phidippus audax, also known as the bold jumping spider - the most confident spider I have ever met. And one of the cutest. It was on the other side of the window and by making circles around it with my finger it would turn and follow until even I got sick of playing with it. So adorable!
Back to the OP. One of the factors is the eyesight, and it is extraordinary the way the eye structure of the jumping spiders (salticids) works which hugely enhances their ability to see. A great reference if you want to get technical is Eight-legged Cats by Harland and Jackson:
Part of the abstract: “Recent research has used Portia to study cognitive attributes more often associated with large predatory mammals such as lions and rarely considered in studies on spiders. In salticids, complex behaviour and high- spatial-acuity vision are tightly interrelated. Salticid eyes are unique and complex. How salticid eyes function is reviewed. Size constraints are discussed.”
The second factor is that jumping spiders twist their cephalothoraxes (the front section of their bodies) without necessarily moving their abdomens. They can twist quite a bit and will do so to watch you. That is a much more obvious reaction to your movement than any other spider family.
They are also the largest family of spiders with nearly 6,000 described species. And I am very glad they are!