Regal Jumping (Phidippus regius)

Physical description and identification

The regal jumping spider is the bulkiest member of the jumping spider family in eastern North America, and the size alone is often enough for an identification. It sits high on short, sturdy legs, turns its whole body to look at anything that moves, and carries a thick coat of hair that gives the abdomen a soft, plush appearance.

Adults

• Size: females range from about 7 to 22 mm (0.28–0.87 in) in body length and males from about 6 to 18 mm (0.24–0.71 in). Most adults seen in the field fall in the 10–15 mm range; the largest females are exceptional.
• Color — males: jet black with a sharply contrasting pattern of white: a central triangle or bar on the front of the abdomen, a pair of round white spots behind it, a white band across the front edge of the abdomen and white rings on the legs. The effect is crisp and almost monochrome.
• Color — females: far more variable. Individuals may be pale grey, sandy tan, chocolate brown, or a strong apricot to orange, with the same triangle-and-spots layout in cream or white. Orange females are common in Florida and are what most people picture when they hear the name.
• Chelicerae: both sexes have iridescent jaws that shift between violet, purple and green with the angle of light. This is structural color from layered scales, not pigment.
• Eyes: eight eyes in four pairs across three rows. The two anterior median eyes are enormous, face forward, and give the spider sharp, color-sensitive vision; the smaller lateral eyes cover nearly the whole circle around it and trigger the characteristic swivel toward movement. Our guide to spider eyes explains the arrangement.

Eggs and egg sac

A female spins a dense silk chamber in a protected cavity — classically under the loose bark of pine or oak, but also in palm boots, rolled leaves, under siding and in shed corners — and lays her eggs inside it. The first clutch of a season is the largest, commonly in the region of 150–200 eggs, and later clutches from stored sperm are progressively smaller. A female may produce several sacs over her adult life. She stays with the eggs and guards them until the spiderlings disperse.

Spiderlings

The young hatch inside the sac, remain there through their first molt, then leave and scatter. They are miniature versions of the adults in shape but plainer in color, and the sexes are indistinguishable until the final molts, when males turn black and white and females settle into their adult shade. Growth takes several months and many molts, each one performed inside a sealed silk retreat.

The web and how it hunts

Regal jumpers spin no capture web. Silk is used for a flat, dense retreat with an opening at each end, where the spider sleeps at night, waits out rain, molts and lays eggs, and for a dragline anchored before every leap. To catch prey, the spider locates an insect visually from as much as 20 cm away, stalks it in careful stages, crouches, and then extends its rear legs by an abrupt surge of internal fluid pressure — a hydraulic launch rather than a muscular one — landing on the target and biting immediately. If the jump falls short, the dragline arrests the fall. See how spider webs work for the contrast with true snare builders.

Where regal jumping spiders live

Phidippus regius is a spider of the southeastern United States and the northern Caribbean. It is abundant throughout Florida and common along the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Carolinas, thinning out northward and westward into eastern Texas. Island populations occur in the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles, including Cuba and Hispaniola.

The habitat is open and sunlit: pine flatwoods, palmetto scrub, old fields, pasture fence lines, citrus groves, coastal dunes and gardens. Regal jumpers are just as at home on human structures, and in Florida they are routinely found on stucco walls, screen enclosures, wooden fences, porch rails and the trunks of palms. They climb readily but hunt at every height from grass stems to rooftops.

Are regal jumping spiders venomous?

Yes, like almost all spiders they use venom to subdue prey, and the venom of a big female is effective against insects several times her weight. It is not medically significant to humans, pets or livestock. The regal jumper lacks the tissue-damaging enzymes of the recluse spiders and the powerful neurotoxin of the widows, and there is no record of a jumping spider bite causing serious illness.

Can regal jumping spiders bite?

They can, but almost never do unless the spider is held tightly or pressed against skin. A regal jumper that notices a person usually stares, then backs away or drops on its dragline. Because the fangs of a large female are relatively strong, a defensive bite can feel sharper than that of a smaller jumping spider — a brief, distinct prick with mild redness that fades within minutes to a few hours. Wash the site with soap and water and apply a cold pack if it stings. Medical attention is only needed if swelling spreads well beyond the bite, if you develop hives or breathing difficulty, which would indicate an allergic reaction rather than the venom, or if the wound later looks infected.

Ecological importance and behavior of the regal jumping spider

Regal jumpers are diurnal visual hunters that take a wide spectrum of prey: flies, moths, grasshoppers, true bugs, beetles, caterpillars and other spiders, including individuals close to their own size. In citrus and vegetable growing areas they are a genuine biological control agent, removing pest insects steadily through the warm months.

Courtship: the male's display is elaborate and entirely visual. He raises and waves his front legs, drums, rocks from side to side and angles his iridescent jaws toward the female, advancing only while she remains still. A misread signal can end badly for him, so the ritual is cautious and can last many minutes.

Natural predators: birds, anoles and other lizards, frogs, mantises, spider-hunting and mud-dauber wasps, and larger spiders. Parasitic wasps and ants also attack egg sacs.

Prey–predator dynamics: because it hunts on foot with acute vision, the regal jumper reaches prey that never enters a web, and its own defence is a combination of eyesight, a long escape jump and the dragline. It is the largest jumping spider in its range, which puts it at the top of the salticid food chain locally.

Seasonal pattern: in Florida adults can be found in every month, with a peak from spring through autumn. Individuals generally live under a year in the wild, maturing in spring and dying after the breeding season; well-kept captives regularly live longer.

Relationship with humans: harmless, and one of the most popular spiders in captivity because it is large, alert, tolerant of handling and easy to feed. In gardens it needs no management at all.

Similar spiders and how to tell them apart

Quick facts

Did you know?

• A regal jumping spider called Kim was trained at the University of Manchester to leap on cue across a laboratory platform, and high-speed filming of those jumps was published in 2018 as a study of how the spider optimises energy and flight time.
• The sleeping retreat usually has an opening at each end, so a spider disturbed at one door can leave by the other.
• Females are one of the few spiders whose adult color varies this widely — grey, brown, tan and orange forms all occur in the same population.
• Regius is Latin for "royal", a reference to the size and bearing of the species rather than any marking.

In summary, the regal jumping spider is a large, harmless, highly visual predator of the American Southeast. Learn the huge front eyes, the iridescent jaws and the crisp spotting, and you will separate it from the widows it is so often mistaken for.