Brilliant jumping spider

The brilliant jumping spider is a large, hairy jumper. Males are mostly black with a bright red abdomen crossed by a black stripe and white-banded palps, while females are duller, in shades of gray, tan, brown or orange, sometimes matching the darker male pattern.

It hunts by sight rather than by web, creeping close to prey on the upper parts of plants before pouncing, trailing a silk safety line as it jumps. Found in old fields and weedy, open habitats across most of North America, adults are most active from May to September, often sharing flowering plants with crab spiders that hunt the same insects.