Jumpers

I had occasion to test my Samsung telephone on a bug on a plant in the fine Alpine House at Wisley yesterday. Using a magnification of 10×, I went for half a dozen or so shots, of which that included above was the best. The bug in question was about a centimetre long. For some reason, the Samsung did pretty well on this occasion.

Next stop Google Images, which seemed pretty clear that this was some kind of jumping spider. This despite my thinking that it had looked rather like a miniature lobster, complete with claws.

It was quite keen on the tan jumping spider, Platycryptus undatus, but reference 1 suggests that this is North America only. The peppered jumper, Pelegrina galathea, was another North American possibility.

Next stop was yet another jumping spider, Marpissa muscosa, which reference 3 suggests is not common in this country, but present. The catch here is that some pictures of it look too furry and some look too green. But my money is here for the moment.

Might have done better had any of my snaps included a front shot of head and eyes.

Notwithstanding, quite a good show by both Samsung telephone and Google image on this occasion.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platycryptus_undatus.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelegrina_galathea.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marpissa_muscosa.