Lil' Jumper

Jumper (Dave)
Originally uploaded by Tokyorosa

Dave took this photo of a little jumping spider while we were in Jemez at the beginning of the month. I'm sure I've mentioned before that I love spiders, and I especially love jumping spiders and wolf spiders.

I've loved spiders since I was a little girl and read the Greek myth about Arachne. Do you know it? Arachne was a young woman who had a talent for weaving. She was so good that she bragged that she was the best weaver in all of Greece. Cautioned to be humble, she instead challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest. Athena accepted. I've heard at least two different endings to the story. In the one I read as a child Arachne wins and an angry Athena strikes Arachne with her spear turning Arachne into a spider and turning her weaving into a web. In a second version an angry Athena destroys Arachne's profane weaving (she had chosen to depict the gods in less than flattering ways) and punishes Arachne by shaming her. The shamed Arachne hangs herself, whereupon Athena takes pity on her and brings her to life, but turns her into a spider so that she might always weave.

I was always fascinated by the young Arachne's bold faith in her own abilities, was impressed that she could challenge a goddess--and win. My fascination with this Greek myth eventually grew into a fascination for spiders like this little jumper.

Here's a little jumping spider trivia: Jumping spiders are ground hunters (not web-based hunters), but they can weave webs and do, for example, to make themselves temporary little homes or lay down silk trails. They are capable of jumping up to 50 times the length of their own bodies and they do so without any special anatomical adaptations. How amazing is that?