Book Review: Jumping Spiders by Joanne Randolph, in Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #3

Food sources do not stand much chance of surviving the combined onslaught of superior sight, silk, speed or strength regardless of whether the prey is another spider or insects (especially ants, dragonflies, flies, katydids, termites). Jumping spiders in fact emerge as daytime foragers and night-time residents of:

• herbaceous and woody plant bark and leaves; and
• leaf-littered, surface-soil stones.

They either flaunt their survival skills considerably as flamboyant, iridescent, sparkling males and unassuming, unobtrusive females or not at all as equally drab paired bark-dwellers or leaf-squatters. They go through their life cycles and natural histories as: 

• claimants to 5,000+ of the world's 35,000+ known spider species; and 
• 300 of the United States of America's 3,500 known spider species. 

Jumping spiders have homelands worldwide even though their greatest representation overlaps with tropical climates. The jumping spider universally is recognized by: 

• gaze uniquely and unspiderly following nearby human movement as if in curiosity or recognition; 
• square-sided cephalo-thorax typically larger than the abdomen; 
• start-stop movements jerking across surfaces; and 
• whirling courtship dances. 

Female salticids join their eggs together in nests in rock crevices, under stones, or within silk-fastened leaves to be guarded until hatch-time into spiderlings. Scientists know of other female jumping spiders conducting nest invasions, eating the overthrown mother's eggs, and raising their own. Ad-libbing detours, avoiding hazards, imitating prey, injecting super-toxins, and moving vibration-lessly along another's webs lead nest-seeking salticids to be egg-guarding jumpers' worst nightmares. 

New York's The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. marks the year 2014 for release of PowerKids Press's Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! series. It thereby narrows the gap between scientific illiteracy and literacy through: 

• #1 Black Widow Spiders in the comb-footed family Theridiidae; 
• #2 Crab Spiders in the prey-ambushing family Thomisidae; 
• #4 Orb-Weaver Spiders in the orb-web family Araneidae; 
• #5 Tarantulas in the downward-fanged family Theraphosidae; and
• #6 Wolf Spiders in the wolf-like family Lycosidae. 

Jumping Spiders offers -- for third- to seventh-graders aged 8 to 12 years -- the salticid's culturally enriching, educationally entertaining bio-geographies, life cycles, and natural histories from:

• book designer Andrew Povolny;
• editors Norman D. Graubart, Jennifer Way;
• photo researcher Katie Stryker; and
• writer Joanne Randolph. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

General distribution of jumping spiders
drawn after World Spider Catalog 7.0, maintained until 2014 by Norman Ira Platnick (December 30, 1951-April 8, 2020): Sarefo, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Distribution.salticidae.1.png

courtship display of male peacock spider (Maratus volans), a species of jumping spider in the peacock genus
Courtship display yields white-fringed, colorful circle by expanding abdominal flaps and raising third pair of legs.: Jurgen Otto, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MalePeacockSpider.jpg

visual fields of a jumping spider
Diagram depicts spider's visual fields as viewed from above. Function of small posterior medial eyes (PME) is unknown.: David Edwin Hill (D.E. Hill), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jumping_spider_vision_David_Hill.png

Marpissa muscosa: a species of jumping spider inhabiting the gigantic Palaearctic ecozone; found widely in northern Europe and in south and east England
closeup of female Marpissa muscosa: Atalanta (WeiaR), CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marpissamuscosa.jpg

Phidippus audax, known commonly as daring jumping spider, or bold jumping spider, is a common North American jumping spider.
face of adult male Phidippus audax; Benschop, Lopik municipality, southwest Utrecht Province, central Netherlands: Opoterser, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phidippus_audax_male.jpg

juvenile jumping spider on fish hook
Beltsville, Prince George's County, south central Maryland: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (Sam Droege), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/7700432068/

Randolph, Joanne. 2014. Jumping Spiders. PowerKids Press: Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #3. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.