Phidippus regius is a species of jumping spider

Jumping spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting and navigation...

. It is the largest jumping spider in eastern North America, with adult males averaging 12mm in length (ranging from 6 to 18mm), and females averaging 15mm (ranging from 7 to 22mm).

Males and females are easily differentiated. The males are always black with a pattern of white spots and stripes. Females often bear similar patterns to the males, but range in color from shades of gray to a vivid orange.

The Regal Jumping Spider belongs to the genus Phidippus

Phidippus

Phidippus is a genus in the family Salticidae . Some of the largest jumping spiders inhabit this genus, and many species are characterized by their brilliant, iridescent green chelicerae. Phidippus is distributed almost exclusively in North America, with the exception of two exported species...

, a group of jumping spiders easily identified both by their relatively large size and their iridescent chelicerae

Chelicerae

The chelicerae are mouthparts of the Chelicerata, an arthropod subphylum that includes arachnids, Merostomata , and Pycnogonida . Chelicerae are pointed appendages which are used to grasp food, and are found in place of the chewing mandibles most other arthropods have...

. Among most members of Phidippus, these chelicerae are generally green, but in the case of P. regius they are often a blue-violet.

Habitat

P. regius is most commonly found in relatively open areas, such as fields and light woodland, with adults usually preferring trees or the walls of buildings as hunting grounds. They build silken nests at night in which to sleep, often in palm fronds or similar areas. Females of the species lay their eggs under the bark of trees, or in secluded spots in wooden structures such as barns.

Distribution

P. regius occurs in the southeastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the West Indies, and has been introduced to Easter Island

Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...

. It is most common to the Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 peninsula.

External links

• regal jumping spider on the UF
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
   / IFAS
  Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
  
  Featured Creatures Web site
• Photographs of P. regius
• Diagnostic drawings