Is this the smallest spider?

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Is this the smallest spider?

Postby ATJ on Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:52 am

This is certainly the smallest I have seen. I felt something crawling up my leg and looking down all I saw was a speck. I got it to crawl onto my finger but I still couldn't determine what it was. I grabbed my lupe and only then could I be sure it was a tiny spider.

The shots below were taken with my 60mm macro with all three Kenko tubes (36+20+12mm) stacked. Even then it is still tiny. I photographed it on a ruler for scale. The lines are one millimetre graduations.

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Re: Is this the smallest spider?

Postby Alpha_7 on Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:47 am

Tiny, but cute! Any idea what species this little chap is ? He looks like he would be pretty quick, not a easy subject for photography.
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Re: Is this the smallest spider?

Postby ATJ on Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:09 pm

Craig, it was very quick. It wouldn't stay on the ruler, let alone the graduations. I suspect it is a jumping spider, but I don't know if it is a juvenile of a larger species or this is as large as it gets.
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Re: Is this the smallest spider?

Postby aim54x on Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:44 pm

Great work Andrew, that spider is TINY. We should FIX it and stick it into a SEM and then get some pics!
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Re: Is this the smallest spider?

Postby colin_12 on Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:09 pm

All I can remember is that spiders are some of the most well travelled invertibrates. They can travel high in the atmosphere on a long strand of silk when they are very young (small) I think less than or equal to 1mm. They feed out a very fine strand until it is enough of a sail that they literally fly away.
That all said I reckon it is just a bub.
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Re: Is this the smallest spider?

Postby blacknstormy on Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:39 pm

Looks like a baby salticidae, or jumping spider :? What ever it is, you did a bloody good job getting the capture !!!
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