Subject: Little green spider that runs and jumps
Location: North Florida, about halfway between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, right on the Georgia border
May 16, 2014 6:37 pm
Found this little guy on a camping trip last weekend. He runs around pretty quick on the ground, and jumps a pretty good distance. He was super tiny; the white thing he’s standing on is a plastic cooler, and the little dark specks around him are grains of dirt. I don’t think he builds webs. We kept an eye on his location and kept checking up on him every few hours; he didn’t move from the top of this cooler until after more than a day. From what I’ve read, it sounds like some sort of crab spider, but I haven’t found one with such a slender thorax and such large, strange-looking mouthparts. Any idea?
Signature: Danny
Hi Danny,
This magnificent spider is a male Magnolia Green Jumper, Lyssomanes viridis, and you can compare your individual to this image on BugGuide. This close-up on BugGuide is quite impressive. The female Magnolia Green Jumper is a much bulkier spider with smaller mandibles.