Habronattus viridipes (Hentz, 1846) - Jumping Spider

In the Northeast this is one of the first jumping spiders active in spring. The immature "red-faced" males can be seen on warm days in late March while the mating displays of the adults occur in the later part of April and into May. Watching birds, whose behavior is often obscurerd by dense foliage can be frustrating. Salticid observers, however, will have a front row seat once they locate a female that is being courted by local males. The mating "arena" is typically as small as a single leaf or rock and many courting males and females are not disturbed by an observer - even at close hand. As often as not, as was the case with the Habronattus viridipes pair shown here, the male's heroic advances are rejected. Ultimately the successful males are those judged to have "the right stuff" by the discerning females.

• ♦ J. H. Emerton - Habrocestum peregrinum - Suffolk (Hyde Park) - Emerton, 1891: 246, pl. 20, f. 6
• ♦ J. H. Emerton - Pellenes viridipes - Norfolk (Sharon) - Emerton, 1909: 228, pl. 12, f. 5
• ♦ T. Murray - H. viridipes - Worcester (Lancaster), April 2006 - BugGuide node 46615
• ♦ T. Murray - H. v. - Plymouth (Plymouth), May 2006 - BugGuide node 53108
• ♦ D. Walton - H. v. - Middlesex (Concord), May 2009 - BugGuide node 274545
• ♦ D. Walton - H. v. - Dukes (Nantucket), September 2010 - Species Data: www.rkwalton.com/jsdata.php
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• ♦ Connecticut - H. v. - Kaston, 1948: 465 Extremely common all over the state.
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Griswold, C. E. 1987. A revision of the jumping spider genus Habronattus F.O.P. Cambridge (Araneae; Salticidae), with phenetic and cladistic analyses. University of California Publications, Entomology 107:1-344.