It's a boy!

This is a photograph of the type of spider who has been living in my bathroom for the past several weeks. Mine is about half the size of the one in the photo. After looking up information on jumping spiders, I learned that 1) my spider is a boy and 2) his full name is Menemerus bivittatus or Gray Wall Jumping Spider, in the vernacular. I call him L’il Fella as in “Hey, L’il Fella, where are you?”

I find out that this particular spider has a large brain. Relatively speaking, the same size as ours in relation to body mass. Most of his brain function deals with his eyesight. These little spiders have acute vision and can see colors. They are also called sociable.

Well, I’d have to agree.

Last evening while I was drying my hair in the bathroom, L’il Fella crawled down the wall and onto the bathroom vanity. He crept up onto the rim of the sink and fastened his eyes on me. I bent down to say howdy and he didn’t flinch a bit. Figuring he might be thirsty, I turned on the faucet and soaked my hand. I let a couple of droplets fall, onto the vanity, off the tips of my fingers. He caught the action, turned around, and crawled off the edge of the sink. He dipped his little palpi into a droplet of water and drank. The palpi are the little curvy appendages in front of his face. After he was finished, he crawled back up onto the edge of the sink and washed his face with his palpi. Then he watched me some more. If I moved out of his eye range, he’d turn and fix his eyes on me again. I swear that he must have enjoyed my company because he stayed the entire time I was there.

Before I left for class, I opened the bathroom window (screen in) and left the bright fluorescent lights on. I figured it would attract a few small gnat type bugs and maybe L’il Fella was hungry.

When I came home, there were several gnat type bugs on the vanity and L’il Fella was happily snugged in behind the soap dispenser bottle—I swear he was fatter than before.

This morning he was up and at ‘em in the window. I watched him jump and snatch a gnat type bug.

I like this spider. He’s really cute and endlessly fascinating. I don’t know exactly what he’s eating outside my attempts at providing him a meal, but I hope there’s enough around for him to last into the cold weather. I’m really going to miss him when he’s gone.