I was finally finsihing off setting up my crafting room/wman's cave/Spoodoir, when I happened to look up and see this tiny little black speck making its way across the door frame. From the way it was moving it was clear that whatever it was, it was definitely a jumping spider, so I grabbed a little container to get a closer look.As you can see from the photos, she was absolutely tiny! About 4mm long, front to back. I was hoping to identify her species, but I couldn't see clearly enough to tell any distinguishing features. So I gave her a fruit fly to make sure she was well fed, and then I put her in a warm dark place (next to my other spoods) in preparation for bringing her to work with me.Before this, I was under the impression that we only had one species of jumping spider in the UK - The zebra jumper. I knew that this little critter was not a zebra jumper - a zebra jumper has black and white stripes on its body, as you might expect from the name. This spider definitely didn't have the black and white stripes. She was clearly tan, cream and brown. From researching, I had a suspicion that she might be a "Fleecy" jumping spider, Pseudeuophrys lanigera. They don't get much bigger than 4-5mm, are tan/brown, and are usually found on outside walls in the UK where they soak up the heat from the Sun. Considering that my work space is in the loft space, where the window opens out onto a very warm sloping, tiled roof, I think this is a pretty good bet. But I took her to work anyway to get her under the microscope.It's actually quite difficult to take a photo of an active jumping spider through a miscroscope lens - I'd get her nicely in focus and then by the time I'd lined my camera up to take a shot down the lens, she'd have darted off already! I did manage to get a couple of shots that I felt were okay, so here they are. I used an old Brunel dissecting trinocular microscope, as I was able to drop her into a clean petri dish to keep her contained, and then view her that way.I love that these photos are so clear - you can see her patterns, her hairs, and at least 6 of her little black eyes. The cream stripe down her back and on her head are why I think she may have been a fleecy jumper. I may be wrong, but until I am told otherwise, I'm assuming that's what she is.After her photoshoot under the microscope, I took her back home with me where she was released back out onti the roof, which is where I believe she came from.
Here is a photoshoot of another Fleecy Jumper which I borrowed from the photographer - Jason Steel - for comparison purposes:
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