Portia

The Portia, a genus, belongs to the family of jumping spiders known for displaying an intelligent hunting behavior alongside possessing strong problem solving and learning skills. It comprises of 17 species scattered over several countries all over the world like Australia, Africa, Madagascar, Nepal, China, and India.

Portia Spider

Scientific Classification

List of Species

  • Portia fimbriata
  • Portia labiata
  • Portia schultzi
  • Portia albimana
  • Portia crassipalpis
  • Portia assamensis
  • Portia heteroidia
  • Portia orientalis
  • Portia hoggi
  • Portia jianfeng
  • Portia songi
  • Portia wui
  • Portia talwanica
  • Portia strandi
  • Portia africana
  • Portia quel
  • Portia zhaoi
Portia Jumping Spider

Physical Description and Identification

Adults

Size: The spiders of this genus are small-sized with the males and females having a length of 5mm to 7mm and 5mm to 10mm respectively.

Color: Most of them have a black or brown body, though the patterns may vary from one species to the other.

Other Characteristic Features: Belonging to the family of jumping spiders, they are known for their strong vision, with all of them having 8 small eyes.

Portia Spider Size

Eggs

They are known to consume eggs of species belonging to their family as well as that of other arachnids.

Portia Spider Egg

The Web

The females build webs (sometimes sticky) to trap preys. They also tend to join their webs to that of other web-based spiders, whom they mostly prey upon.

Portia Spider Web

Are the Spiders of Portia Genus Poisonous and Do They Bite

Being a genus of the jumping spider, they have venom and might bite only when provoked or threatened. However, their venom is said to be non-toxic to humans causing nothing more than localized pain or redness.

Portia Spiderling

Quick Facts

Lifespan Approximately 1.5  years
Distribution Australia, Africa and parts of Asia
Habitat Mostly in tropical rain forests and moist areas
Predators Birds, frogs and some insects like assassin bugs and mantises
Diet Eggs of other spiders, web-based spiders as well as several small insects

Did You Know

  • Because of their small eyes, it takes long for them to get a proper view of a good image, thus they take time in seeing objects.
  • Though intelligent, they are known to have a slow thinking process, since their brains are as small as a pin’s head having only 600,000 neurons in comparison to 100 billion neurons of human beings.  
  • German arachnologist, Friedrich Karsch, established this genus in 1878.

Image Credits: Usercontent1.hubstatic.com, Spectrumpestsolutions.com, Static.comicvine.com, Anura.it, Scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com,
I.pinimg.com, Thescienceexplorer.com

The Portia, a genus, belongs to the family of jumping spiders known for displaying an intelligent hunting behavior alongside possessing strong problem solving and learning skills. It comprises of 17 species scattered over several countries all over the world like Australia, Africa, Madagascar, Nepal, China, and India.

Portia Spider

List of Species

  • Portia fimbriata
  • Portia labiata
  • Portia schultzi
  • Portia albimana
  • Portia crassipalpis
  • Portia assamensis
  • Portia heteroidia
  • Portia orientalis
  • Portia hoggi
  • Portia jianfeng
  • Portia songi
  • Portia wui
  • Portia talwanica
  • Portia strandi
  • Portia africana
  • Portia quel
  • Portia zhaoi
Portia Jumping Spider

Physical Description and Identification

Adults

Size: The spiders of this genus are small-sized with the males and females having a length of 5mm to 7mm and 5mm to 10mm respectively.

Color: Most of them have a black or brown body, though the patterns may vary from one species to the other.

Other Characteristic Features: Belonging to the family of jumping spiders, they are known for their strong vision, with all of them having 8 small eyes.

Portia Spider Size

Eggs

They are known to consume eggs of species belonging to their family as well as that of other arachnids.

Portia Spider Egg

The Web

The females build webs (sometimes sticky) to trap preys. They also tend to join their webs to that of other web-based spiders, whom they mostly prey upon.

Portia Spider Web

Are the Spiders of Portia Genus Poisonous and Do They Bite

Being a genus of the jumping spider, they have venom and might bite only when provoked or threatened. However, their venom is said to be non-toxic to humans causing nothing more than localized pain or redness.

Portia Spiderling

Quick Facts

Lifespan Approximately 1.5  years
Distribution Australia, Africa and parts of Asia
Habitat Mostly in tropical rain forests and moist areas
Predators Birds, frogs and some insects like assassin bugs and mantises
Diet Eggs of other spiders, web-based spiders as well as several small insects

Did You Know

  • Because of their small eyes, it takes long for them to get a proper view of a good image, thus they take time in seeing objects.
  • Though intelligent, they are known to have a slow thinking process, since their brains are as small as a pin’s head having only 600,000 neurons in comparison to 100 billion neurons of human beings.  
  • German arachnologist, Friedrich Karsch, established this genus in 1878.

Image Credits: Usercontent1.hubstatic.com, Spectrumpestsolutions.com, Static.comicvine.com, Anura.it, Scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com,
I.pinimg.com, Thescienceexplorer.com

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