Darling Jumping Spiders

What: Darling Jumping Spider

When: Summer of 2016

Where: Eatontown, New Jersey

How: Long Story (Macro Lens Setup)

Somehow most of us are genetically programmed to be scared of spiders, and when it comes to that, this specific breed sits at the fine line of being interesting as well as creepy as well. The Darling Jumping Spider is a much bigger cousin of the jumping spider, which surely fall under the category of beneficial insects. They are hunters (actually too good at it) and stay close to the structures of your house like windows and doors and jump on other insects like flies, mosquitoes, etc and eat them. They help get rid of the a lot of pests that would otherwise be disturbing you in the backyard (or even inside your house).

These spiders have 8 eyes on top of their head that gives them a 360 degree visibility, which helps in those hunts.

The picture above is a great mix of coincidence, timing and lot of patience. One of these spiders showed up inside our house and was noticed by one of the children. I captured it safely and put it in a container, that I use for macro photography, but had no immediate plans to shoot. I noticed that the kitchen window was open, and that's probably where this spider must have come inside as well, and then I heard the humm of the house fly. Within no time, the fly was sitting at the edge of the container and the spider was staring at it, and I knew this was gonna be action time. I got my camera, and set it up to shoot the video but the action took place before I could get back and I saw the spider sitting at the bottom of the container with the fly in it's grip. So I took the picture, let the spider consume the fly and then relocated it back to the backyard where it stayed and ate a lot of those pests.