Brilliant Jumping Spider

Phidippus clarus is a species of jumping spider (family Salticidae) found in old fields throughout eastern North America. It often waits upside down near the top of a plant, which may be useful for detecting prey, and then quickly jumps down before the prey can escape. The spider is one of 60 species in the genus Phidippus,:vii and one of about 5,000 in the Salticidae, a family that accounts for about 10% of all spider species. P. clarus...