Here's Looking At You

I ran across this adorable little guy (or gal?) in a pine tree on my school's campus. We have a small seasonal creek and some woods behind the building, so sometimes I will use my lunch break to take a little nature walk. This is a jumping spider from the genus Phidippus, I believe; however, I am still working on a more specific identification.

You Can't See Me!

Giving The Side Eye

I'll save you the long post about how amazing these spiders are, but if you would like to know more about what makes the jumping spider the coolest spider on the planet (Hint: it is NOT those ice-blue chelicerae), check out my previous post about the topic. They truly are amazing creatures!

I really want to show my students how cool these spiders are, so I have kept Juniper as our new class pet. It is super adorable and it exudes personality! I think the kids are going to love it.
Thanks for checking out my post. Hope to see you, next time!