--- title: "Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "A daytime stalker from a spider family whose forward-looking resolution beats every insect's, trailing a safety line of silk when it jumps." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/bold-jumping-spider-1.webp" published: "2026-10-11" updated: "2026-10-11" --- # Bold Jumping Spider (*Phidippus audax*) > **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: A daytime stalker from a spider family whose forward-looking resolution beats every insect's, trailing a safety line of silk when it jumps. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Nu-Metal & Heavy Alt-Metal // Eville, "Monster" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6jIkMel8WpJSA69pC0DOdp) > **Vibe Match**: A bold jumping spider watches its target, sneaks up on it and pounces, its powerful hind legs propelling the leap while a silk safety line trails behind. Eville's Monster creeps through its verse, then drops into one heavy breakdown. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Phidippus audax* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Not Evaluated ([IUCN Red List](https://www.iucnredlist.org/)) - **Superpower**: Sneaks up and pounces on prey, trailing a silk safety line - **Habitat**: Grasslands, prairies, open woodlands, old fields, backyards and gardens across North America - **Diet**: A wide variety of insects and other spiders - **Tags**: arachnid, invertebrate, predator, diurnal, agile ## Natural History & Behavior ## A brain the size of a poppy seed The bold jumping spider, *Phidippus audax*, belongs to a family that sees through four pairs of eyes. In jumping spiders, forward-looking spatial resolution surpasses that of all insects and even some mammals, processed by a brain roughly the size of a poppy seed. The forward-facing eyes in the middle of the front are the largest of the eight. When a person looks at the spider, they are the ones that look back. > **Eyes with different jobs** > In jumping spiders, high-acuity and motion vision are processed by different pairs of eyes. The principal eyes track targets with their movable retinae, while the immobile anterior lateral eyes have a larger field of view and lower resolution. ## Stalk, pounce, tether Jumping spiders require daylight to hunt their prey, and this one hunts by day, not at night. It watches a target with its sharp vision, sneaks up on it and pounces. The powerful hind legs propel the leap. It adjusts the plan to the prey. Flies get a different angle of approach and a different jump distance than caterpillars. In lab tests, spiders pursued large insects at significantly slower rates (more cautiously) than small ones. A jump comes with a safety line. When a bold jumping spider leaps, it releases a line of webbing, and if the jump fails, the line catches the spider before it falls. The menu is a wide variety of insects and other spiders. In Idaho, the species was seen preying on hobo spiders. ## Small, hairy and green-jawed The bold jumping spider is black and hairy. Females measure 8 to 19 millimeters and males 6 to 13. Its genus holds the largest-bodied of the jumping spiders. White, yellow or orange spots mark the top of the abdomen, and they are orange on younger spiders. The chelicerae, the fang-bearing mouthparts, frequently have an iridescent green hue. Males have "eyebrows," tufts of hairs over the eyes. The male courts with a display particular to the species. He lifts certain legs and shows off his colored spots. If the female approaches too rapidly, he jumps away. ## From prairie to porch rail The species occurs across North America, from southeastern Canada west to British Columbia and south to Florida, the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. Its natural habitats are grasslands, prairies and open woodlands, and it is frequently found in backyards and gardens. It can be found on windowsills, tree trunks and deck railings in daylight. It overwinters nearly mature, then becomes adult in April and May. The species is venomous, but its bite is not dangerous to humans. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is the bold jumping spider dangerous to people? It is a shy spider that retreats from people, and if it is handled it generally does not bite. When a bite does happen, minor pain, itching, swelling and redness may last one to two days. *(Source: [Penn State Extension]())* ### How many eggs does a female lay? A female may produce as many as 6 clutches of eggs, each holding 30 to 170 eggs. She makes a silk shelter for the eggs and guards them until they hatch and the spiderlings disperse. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### Can a bold jumping spider survive on dead prey? Yes, in a lab study of 600 spiderlings split into eight treatments, it could survive solely on dead prey, but at significantly lower survival rates and with longer instar durations (the time spent between molts) than spiders fed live prey. *(Source: [Vickers et al. 2014]())* ### What hunts the bold jumping spider? Dragonflies are known to attack it. Birds and lizards do as well. Faced with an animal too large to eat, it flees quickly, jumping down and away or hiding in a small crevice. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ## Sources 1. [Phidippus audax. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 2. [Bold Jumper Spider. Penn State Extension.]() 3. [Menda et al. (2014). Visual Perception in the Brain of a Jumping Spider. Current Biology.]() 4. [Spano, Long & Jakob (2012). Secondary eyes mediate the response to looming objects in jumping spiders (Phidippus audax, Salticidae). Biology Letters.]() 5. [Vickers et al. (2014). Scavenging throughout the life cycle of the jumping spider, Phidippus audax (Hentz) (Araneae: Salticidae). Journal of Arachnology.]() 6. [Freed (1984). Foraging behaviour in the jumping spider Phidippus audax: bases for selectivity. Journal of Zoology.]() *Published October 11, 2026. 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