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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
This Phidippus mystaceus is small enough to perch on a fingernail.
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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
Since I first noticed one in my Tulsa backyard, I've been smitten. I began learning about their names and ways, then looking for them in local parks and reserves like the Oxley Nature Center, where I spied this thumbnail-size Phidippus putnami.
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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
This is an extreme close-up of a plump adult female Phidippus pius; her body easily covered the end of my thumb. To look into the face of a jumping spider and see it return the gaze—with all eight eyes (the others aren't visible from this angle)—is one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had.
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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
I carried this adult male Zygoballus rufipes home in a cup of leaves after I found it on a pillar at the University of Oklahoma. Known as the hammerjawed jumper (for the shape of its fangs and mouth appendages), it's a very small species—only .16 of an inch long.
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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
Jumping spiders like this one are often seen grooming their claws and wiping their eyes, as though they were little cats. I found and photographed this Phidippus sp. near Tulsa.
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Photograph by Thomas Shahan
I found this young Phidippus audax while strolling through a field of tall grass and wildflowers in Norman, Oklahoma. The yellow you see coating its body is pollen, perhaps acquired after a messy tussle with a bee.
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