Phidippus texanus CB Spiderling

Description

The Texas Jumping Spider is Phidippus texanus. These are available through this listing as captive-bred, young, spiderlings. They hatched on 9/16/24 and are now 3rd instar and stable on D. melanogaster fruit flies. We even feed them D. hydei, but recommend the smaller fruit flies for you. Please note that they fed on D. melanogaster in the first instar and of course are doing wonderfully on them now and 3rd instar.

This species is distributed through most of Texas and north into adjacent states and then south into Mexico. As expected, they are Texas-big!

Adult females are generally a pale whitish gray to beige. The patterning on their abdomens is rather ornate. Chelicerae of the females are a brilliant, metallic teal color that really shines!

At maturity the species is sexually dimorphic. Males are large with red-orange abdomens, black legs and a black cephalothorax. White hairs and even a few, faint gray to white bands are not uncommon on the legs. Chelicerae are a striking and unusual shade of metallic greenish blue that is difficult to describe.

Note: main photo on this page is of an adult female. You can see a photo of a 3rd instar spiderling eating a D. hydei fruit flies in the additional photos section on this page.

You can see photos of them at iNaturalist through THIS LINK