Volume 47, Number 1,
February 2001:
Checklist of Kansas Jumping Spiders

Text-only version

ISSUE HOME PAGE

ABOUT THIS ISSUE
- about KSN
- about the authors

IN THIS ISSUE
- introduction
- life cycle
- annotated list of Kansas jumping spiders
- salticid spider bite
- mimicry
- enemies: predators and parasites
- care and maintenance of jumping spiders in the lab
- references

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Checklist of Kansas Jumping Spiders
by Hank Guarisco, Bruce Cutler, and Kenneth E. Kinman

SALTICID SPIDER BITE
Jumping spiders, like most spiders, have venom glands and occasionally bit people in self defense. Most jumping spiders are small and are generally incapable of inflicting bites because their fangs don't penetrate the skin. However, the bites of several members of the genus Phidippus, which are large and sometimes aggressive, have caused mild to moderate local tissue damage. While collecting spiders near Clinton Lake in Douglas County, Kansas, the first author (HG) was bitten on the thumb by an adult 3-spotted jumping spider (P. audax). The sharp pain caused by fang puncture was followed by local redness and swelling of the bitten area. The region involved was limited to the last digit of the thumb and all symptoms were gone in one or two days. Others have reported more extensive swelling and the development of a small black lesion which healed in several weeks following a bite (21).