Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Euophryinae
Genus: Trite
Species: T.parvula
Synonym: Euophrys parvula
Binomial name: Trite parvula
Common name: House hopper
Trite parvula (Euophrys parvula) was is a small, relatively common NZ jumping spider found in the North Island and as far south as Christchurch. Jumping spiders have the keenest eyesight of all spiders, with eyes that are capable of forming images. This excellent eyesight is important as jumping spiders actively hunt their prey during daylight. As their name suggests, jumping spiders are capable of leaping large distances when they pounce on their prey.
A Trite parvula can jump 5cm onto a fly. The photo below shows a spider with a house fly that it has jumped on and is injecting a paralysing poison. Note the silk safety line that is attached to its silk spinnerets.
The diagram below is the visual fields of a jumping spider as viewed from above. The function of the small posterior medial eyes (PME) is not known.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
