Salticid Ant Eater - Zenodorus orbiculatus
FAMILY SALTICIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Salticid Ant Eaters that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 6mm
- We easily find this small Jumping Spiders on gum and wattle tree trunks. They are always facing downwards, seems waiting for something.
- With some observations, we found that they prey on different species of ants. They wait and target for the ants where those ants are also walking up and down on the tree trunk.
- The spider shiny black to dark brown in colour, with a white line circle the edge of its abdomen. Some with a white dot at the centre. Its legs are from black to pale brown.
- This Jumping Spiders are ant-hunters which specifically targeting on ants. We saw the spiders feeding on different species of ants many times.
- They usually found hunting on smooth bark gum tree trunk. Sometimes they also find on leaves.
- Body length 5mm
- This young Salticid Ant Eater was hunting on stems, feeding on small brown ants.
- Body length 3mm, winter in Karawatha Forest
- Just got a winged ant.
- Reference:
- 1. Jumping spider Zenodorus orbiculatus - The Find-a-spider Guide for Australian Spiders, University of Southern Queensland, 2007.
- 2. Zenodorus orbiculatus (Keyserling, 1881) - Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library, by Jerzy Proszynski 1997.
