The fringed jumping spider, also known as ‘portia’ to some, is renowned as one of the world’s smartest spiders. Like most hunters, they enjoy tasty snacks, which includes but isn’t limited to other spiders. Notably, portia can use at least three special abilities to apprehend their prey.
Perhaps one of portia’s most valuable abilities is its ability to jump more than fifty times its own body length. This makes it easy for the spider to move from one branch or stem to another, and in some instances, from one spider web to another.
Portia also sports incredible eyesight, which comes in handy as a predator because it allows the spider to key in on potential targets more easily. This is an important skill to have, as much of portia’s prey often likes to park it at the center of webs, and the lack of movement makes it more challenging to discern the prey from other objects.
Portia’s third special ability is an incredible intellect, which it uses to determine the best plan of attack for its unsuspecting prey. Bring that the prey spider is highly venomous, portia must act carefully and plan the attack before jumping in. Portia maps its surroundings and uses different methods to get to its prey – sometimes luring the spider with web movements or simply jumping down from above.
