Spider wasps and mantises are known predators of zebra spiders. Zebra spiders have neutral coloration which helps them blend into their environment. They are heavily reliant on their eyesight to escape predators.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Zebras spiders are small, ranging from 4-7 mm in size. Females are larger than males and usually range from 4-6.5 mm while males range from 4-5.5 mm. They have 3-4 white stripes on their abdomens; those at the base of the abdomen are complete, while those in the middle are narrow or broken. The abdomen is longer and narrower than the cephalothorax. Males have a more elaborate striping pattern on their legs. In males, the chelicerae are larger than in females and extend almost horizontally.
These spiders have eight eyes arranged in three rows, with two pairs of eyes in the front row and one pair in each of the other rows. The main AME (anterior median eyes), which are located in the center of the first row of eyes, are extremely large and are used for binocular vision. The ALE (anterior lateral eyes) are smaller than the AME and are located in the first row of eyes. This is a characteristic of spiders in the family Salticidae. The eyes in the second row provide vision in the forward direction while the final row of eyes allow the spider to look upward.
These spiders are covered in hair. They have cushions of hair called scopulae on their legs and feet. The scopulae located on the bottom of their feet are particularly dense and are the only part of the spiders' body that touches the substrate. These hairs increase the surface area of the feet and work by adhesive forces, which allows jumping spiders to stick to smooth, vertical substrates.
Range length: 4.0 to 7.0 mm.
Average length: 4.0-6.5 mm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry ; venomous
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger; sexes colored or patterned differently; sexes shaped differently
Little information is available regarding the longevity of zebra spiders in the wild, but most spiders living in temperate regions live for one to two years. In captivity, the life expectancy of zebra spiders is two to three years, with females generally living longer than males.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 1 to 2 years.
Typical lifespan
Status: captivity: 2 to 3 years.
Zebra spiders are a terrestrial, urban species of spider. These spiders are commonly seen on vertical surfaces such as walls, fences, window panes. They also live in forests, meadows, and gardens.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest
Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban
Some flies (Order Diptera) are known to mimic spiders from the family Salticidae in order to escape predators.
Zebra spiders have very large, well-developed frontal eyes. Unlike those of most spiders, which can only perceive motion, the eyes of jumping spiders can form detailed images. They have well-developed retinas that move independently of each other, and large lenses. Visual stimuli are used in hunting, courtship rituals, and to escape from predators.
Vibrations and chemical stimuli are also used in hunting and communications. While hunting, salticids can recognize their prey based on the vibrations the animal creates when it lands on the substrate. Prey items such as flies produce high frequency vibrations compared to background noise. Spiders can also perceive their environment through senses of smell and taste. Tasting occurs when a spider's contact chemoreceptors, located on the legs and palps, come into contact with a substance of a high concentration, while volatile substances can be sensed by olfaction in smaller concentrations. Females release sex pheromones to attract males.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: pheromones ; vibrations
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; vibrations ; chemical
This species has not been evaluated by the IUCN red list and has no special conservation status.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
Spiders develop in an egg sac that is usually hidden under a rock. Development consists of an embryonic period, a larval period, a nympho-imaginal period, and adulthood. The embryonic period begins when the egg is fertilized. In the larval stage, the spider survives on yolk from the egg and still lacks any distinguishable morphological features. The nympho-imaginal period follows the larval period. "Nymph" refers to the juvenile spider, while "imago" refers to the adult. During this phase, the spider develops functioning organ systems and hatches. Molting occurs between each of these development stages. In salticid spiders, juveniles undergo 5-11 instars before becoming an adult.
Zebra spiders, like most spiders, produce a venom from glands located inside the chelicerae. However, this species is very small and a bite is unlikely to cause injury to a human, or even be able to pierce their skin.
Zebra spiders primarily feed on flies and mosquitoes. These organisms are human pests and disease vectors. Predation by zebra spiders can help to keep populations of these pests in check.
Positive Impacts: controls pest population
Zebra spiders are predators that feed on a variety of organisms. They primarily feed on flies and mosquitos, but have also been known to eat butterflies and moths, ants, wasps, and bees, cicadas, and spiders.
Zebra spiders are active predators that feed primarily on insects, and can catch prey that is much larger than their body size. Their primary prey are dipterans, which includes mosquitos and flies. They do, however, also prey on small spiders, and will even eat members of their own species. When cannibalism occurs, the smaller spider is always the victim. Zebra spiders use their excellent vision to locate their prey.
Animal Foods: insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Primary Diet: carnivore (Insectivore )
Zebra spiders have a Holarctic distribution. They are native to Europe, where they are found throughout the continent, but are also found throughout North America north of Mexico to southern Canada, where it is believed that they are an introduced species. This species has also been recorded across Russia, with additional records from Afghanistan, Greenland, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Argentina.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Introduced ); palearctic (Native ); neotropical (Introduced )
Other Geographic Terms: holarctic
All salticid spiders have courtship rituals in which the male performs for the female. This is a visual ritual relying heavily on eyesight. Males use the stripped markings on their legs to attract a female. A male spider will dance in a zigzag pattern moving his pedipalps, front legs, and abdomen. During the dance, the female watches the male. If the female accepts the male, she crouches down, thereby signaling that the male may approach her. While still facing the female, the male climbs on top of her, and she orients her abdomen so that he can insert sperm into her genital opening.
Mating System: monogamous
Zebra spiders breed in spring and early summer. Specific information about number of offspring and time from egg deposition to independence is currently unavailable, as is information regarding time to sexual maturity. It is likely that, as with most temperate spider species, females reach maturity at some point in their first year of life, with males maturing somewhat earlier.
Breeding interval: Zebra spiders breed once yearly
Breeding season: Spring and early summer
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous
Salticid species keep their eggs in a cocoon spun from silk. The mother closely guards the eggs until they hatch. Female zebra spiders guard their young until after the young have had their second molt. The young spiderlings then disperse and must care for themselves.
Parental Investment: precocial ; female parental care ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Protecting: Female)
The zebra spider (Salticus scenicus) is a common jumping spider of the Northern Hemisphere. Their common name refers to their vivid black-and-white colouration,[1] whilst their scientific name derives from Salticus from the Latin for “dancing”, in reference to their agility, and the Greek scenicus, translating to “theatrical” or “of a decorative place,” in reference to the flashy, zebra-like coloration of the species.[2]
Female zebra spiders are 5–9 mm long, while males are 5–6 mm.[3] Male zebra spiders have distinctly larger chelicerae than females. Spiders in the family Salticidae have especially enlarged anterior median eyes (AME), though the anterior and posterior lateral eyes (ALE, PLE) are also large when compared to the very small posterior median eyes (PME). In total there are eight eyes, with the very large anterior median eyes primarily responsible for its excellent binocular vision. These small spiders are black with white hairs that form stripes.[3]
Zebra spiders are widespread across Europe, North America,[3] and North Asia,[4] where they are found throughout the Holarctic.
This species is naturally associated with open habitats such as rock faces, shingle beaches and occasionally the trunks of trees.[5] Due to their preference for open, vertical habitats they are often found living in proximity to humans in urban habitat such as on garden fences and the walls of buildings.[6] Spiders have also been known to enter houses, where they can often be found living in the corner of windowsills.[7]
Zebra spiders tend to hunt smaller spiders and other arthropods. They have been observed feeding on mosquitos that are almost twice their length. They have also been observed taking on prey items up to 3 times the length of the spider, such as some of the smaller species of moth. Like other jumping spiders, these spiders use their large front eyes to locate and stalk their prey. They move slowly towards their prey until they are close enough to pounce on top of their victim, and their hunting behaviour has been described as cat-like. Using their acute eyesight, they are able to accurately judge the distances they need to jump.
They orient towards prey detected by their lateral eyes whenever the angle subtended by such prey exceeds 5.5°. The velocity of the prey is not involved in the determination of reactive distance, but only moving objects elicit orientation. The probability that orientation is followed by stalking is a function of both prey size and velocity. The zebra spider's stalk velocity declines progressively as it nears its (stationary) prey.[8]
Before jumping, they glue a silk thread to the surface that they are jumping from so that if they miss the target, they can climb up the thread and try again - However, they may 'abseil' with a silk thread if they wish to descend from a height safely, for instance they have been documented 'abseiling' from ceilings. They ignore unappetising insects such as ants.
There are no extensor muscles at the 'hinge joints' of the spider leg; joint extension in the legs is controlled by haemocoelic blood pressure. The most significant evidence that this extension is due to hydraulic forces is that the leg spines become erect during the jump, a result of increased body pressure which can be demonstrated on many spiders. The zebra spider's jump is almost entirely due to the sudden straightening of the fourth pair of legs. The mean jumping velocity is estimated to be between 0.64–0.79 m/s (2.1–2.6 ft/s).[9]
This species breeds during the spring and summer months.[10] When a male and female spider meet, the male will conduct a courtship dance. The dance involves waving their front legs, pedipalps and moving their abdomen up and down.[10][11] During the courtship dance males use their striped markings to signal that they wish to mate with the female.[4] The courting ritual relies heavily on eyesight.[11] The better the dance the more likely the female will want to mate. Males must be careful when approaching a female as they can risk being attacked or even mistaken as a prey species.[4] If the female is impressed with the male's dance she will allow the male to approach.[7] The female will crouch and allow the male to climb on top of her.[10] Male spiders use a pair of leg-like appendages called pedipalps to transfer sperm to the female during the mating process.[4] Females will stay with their egg sacs and will guard the young after they hatch. After the spiderlings have had their second moult they will leave the mother and fend for themselves.[10]
Salticus scenicus was one of the spiders included in Carl Alexander Clerck's 1757 work Svenska Spindlar / Aranei Suecici, the starting point for spider names in zoological nomenclature.[12] Clerck originally called the species Araneus scenicus, and Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 edition of Systema Naturae named it Aranea scenica; the specific epithet scenicus means "actor".[13] Since then a number of synonyms have been published:[12]
The zebra spider (Salticus scenicus) is a common jumping spider of the Northern Hemisphere. Their common name refers to their vivid black-and-white colouration, whilst their scientific name derives from Salticus from the Latin for “dancing”, in reference to their agility, and the Greek scenicus, translating to “theatrical” or “of a decorative place,” in reference to the flashy, zebra-like coloration of the species.
