African Dandy

Most species of jumping spiders appear to be cursorial (adapted to run), allowing them to hunt insects without using webs. However, species of the genus Portia prefer to hunt other spiders, often invading their victims' webs. Some Portia species including P. africana, also efficiently hunt other jumping spiders.

Tactics specific to Portia africana. In Kenya's Kimumu region, a savanna area which is dry and hot throughout the year, P. africana forms large numbers in the webs of other spiders, in the nest complexes of other jumping spiders, around solitary nests of other jumping spiders, and around the nests of oecobiid spiders. While most aggregations of P. africana there include adult and also juvenile of all stages, most groups consist only of small juveniles. A group of small juveniles can prevent jumping spiders and oecobiids from entering or leaving its nest. One of the juveniles will lunge and bite the victim, and sometimes others of the group join in feeding. In vegetation near the shoreline of Lake Victoria, social jumping spiders build nest complexes, in which P. africana hunts, apparently without building capture-webs. The assassin bugs Nagusta sp. indet. ("not identified") and Scipinnia repax prey on P. africana and on social jumping spiders and other types of prey in the complexes. Nagusta usually hunts in groups of two to three, apparently catches P. …