Adults are commonly 8–15 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Phidippus ardens
A jumping spider in which both sexes flash blue-turquoise jaws but advertise sex with different red abdominal patterns.
About this species
Phidippus ardensPeckham & Peckham, 1901
Phidippus ardens is a large, vividly coloured jumping spider of the western United States and Mexico. It hunts without a capture web, using acute vision, controlled leaps and a silk safety line.
Animalia · Arthropoda · Arachnida · Araneae · Salticidae · Phidippus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Western United States and Mexico
Dry scrub, grassland, woodland edges and sunlit vegetation.
Diurnal visual hunter.
Insects and other small arthropods.
Solitary; females guard an egg sac in a silk retreat.
Both sexes possess iridescent blue-turquoise chelicerae, so the usual “jaw colour” shortcut used for some Phidippus fails completely in this species.
Mature males develop a brilliant red abdomen, while females retain a red field divided by a conspicuous black stripe — a species-level colour code visible before physical contact.
It attacks from open air rather than a snare: the spider judges distance with its principal eyes, launches a ballistic jump and keeps a silk dragline attached in case the landing fails.
Sources and scientific references
More photographs
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