# Awarness of humans zebra spiders **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803 "2016-05-14T22:11:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/21 "2017-03-25T16:24:32Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > 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. Actually, the OP was probably viewing the spider’s interest [in reverse](http://imgur.com/4DqHp). ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/22 "2017-03-25T16:28:55Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Kaldari_Salticus_scenicus_female_01.jpg) is the guy you mean … I don’t know who he is and I _really_ don’t want to meet him! Thank God I live in England where spiders may be creepy but do not have eyes as big as saucers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/23 "2017-03-25T16:45:09Z")
Not only do jumping spiders have [good eyesight](https://www.wired.com/2014/04/spider-vision-made-clear/), they can also [hear you](http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/1013/Spidey-sense-Jumping-spiders-can-hear-a-shriek-from-across-the-room). Also, [they like to play you the song of their people](http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/336/tumblr_lsogs20yVQ1qf2jixo1_400.gif). ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/24 "2017-03-25T17:06:51Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t know who he is and I _really_ don’t want to meet him! Thank God I live in England where spiders may be creepy but do not have eyes as big as saucers. 🙂 Actually the spider I was talking about was seen in England - Zebra Spiders are quite common in England, but they’re small (around about the size of money spiders) and quite shy so you don’t see them that often. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/25 "2017-03-25T17:19:27Z")
You know, looking at [this chart](http://www.thebiologistapprentice.com/blog/spider-identification-by-eye-arrangement), it really jumps out at you how little variety there is in the eyes of vertebrates. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/26 "2017-03-25T17:54:15Z")
I had a black and white jumping spider in my window and I swear we had a bond of some sort. I used to feed him bugs and he got to where he would come out of hiding and climb on my hand. I was blown away by his intelligence and awareness. He had really grown huge for a jumping spider and I am pretty sure my ex killed it when she took over my guest house. I was furious. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/27 "2017-03-25T22:17:53Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I had a black and white jumping spider in my window and I swear we had a bond of some sort. I used to feed him bugs and he got to where he would come out of hiding and climb on my hand. I was blown away by his intelligence and awareness. He had really grown huge for a jumping spider and I am pretty sure my ex killed it when she took over my guest house. I was furious. That was how I got over my fear of spiders - getting to know individuals and watch their lives and appreciate their intelligence. The fear turned to fascination and now to obsession. Love them! ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/28 "2017-03-25T22:45:19Z")
> [@naita](#): > > 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. Ron Hoy, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University [led a study](http://www.seeker.com/a-look-inside-a-jumping-spiders-explosive-brain-1769216115.html) that measured the brain activity of these little guys when they were shown photos of things they should recognize. They recognize things. Having near-human eyesight it really shouldn’t be a surprise that they can tell when they are being looked at by a giant. Since everything they do is governed by a brain the size of a poppy seed they probably aren’t doing any heavy thinking about it, but since they can see so well with such a tiny brain they’ve got some kind of something going on whether you want to call it awareness or not. > [@](#): > > If you just wave your hand, this is one of the few animals that will turn around and look back at you," Hoy said. "To me, that makes them endearing, and it makes me think maybe I don’t want to squash that animal. The OP’s description of their behavior is only a little bit more enthusiastic than one of the leading researchers of the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Alfishius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Alfishius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfishius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/29 "2018-03-14T04:03:45Z")
Jumping spiders are on one end of the spider continuum and those horrible giant orb weavers (Areanus) are at the other. Not the Nephila orb weavers, I like those. They don’t have repulsive fat abdomens like the Areanus kind. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/30 "2018-03-14T04:36:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > 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.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_yYC5r8xMI) I Hope those things don’t live near airports… they could seriously divert a 747 on that last furlong. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/31 "2018-03-14T13:26:39Z")
“Orb weaver” is a lot larger category of spiders than most people realize. You know what a spider web looks like, right? A bunch of radial rays, with a tight spiral wound around them? That’s an orb web, and any kind of spider that makes a web like that is an orb weaver. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/32 "2018-03-14T13:53:10Z")
Pretty much every animal I can think of has a nose and mouth that faces in the same direction as their eyes. Thus, some creatures sense when they are being looked at (stalked) because they are actually sensing the carbon dioxide being exhaled. I don’t know if that pertains to this particular creature, however. It may simply be the 360 vision afforded by their eight eyes. It allows them to keep an eye on you … and you … and you over there, etc. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/33 "2018-03-14T15:05:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “Orb weaver” is a lot larger category of spiders than most people realize. You know what a spider web looks like, right? A bunch of radial rays, with a tight spiral wound around them? That’s an orb web, and any kind of spider that makes a web like that is an orb weaver. Not exactly. Most orb-weavers belong to the [Araneidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb-weaver_spider), but a few other families also make orb-webs, including the Tetragnathidae and Uloboridae. The latter don’t use sticky silk in their webs, but instead silk coated with fuzzy fibers. Orb-webs are the stereotypical spider webs, but tangled webs or cobwebs are more common. Spiders also make sheet webs, tubular webs, and funnel webs. Jumping spiders don’t make webs for catching prey at all, or for securing it. They do use silk for tether lines and for making shelters, however. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803/34 "2018-03-14T22:04:33Z")
The uloborids get even more confusing. Not only do they make an orb web with fuzzy (cribellate) silk, they don’t use venom. Really mess up classification. Our locals look like tiny scraps of junk in lots of webs together all over our back veranda. They attach to the chairs whenever they are left unattended. Messy little darlings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awarness-of-humans-zebra-spiders/754803.md?page=1)