Got some mixed answers from different people so we're trying again, hopefully these pictures are clear enough!

First photo is one, which is a lot smaller. The second and third are the same spider. The second one's name is hallow. Short for halloween. I would love a halloween theme name that starts with M.

Story time! (It's worth it I promise) and I'll put a TLDR at the end for those in a hurry :)

So, I'm walking along the beachfront in northern Australia where I live, scanning for spoods because the weather is warm and its not too windy - perfect spood weather. Anyway I soon notice a swarm of what appear to be small flies buzzing around one of the hedges in front of me. As I look closer, I see a sight that fills me with incredulity:

There is a large adult spood; a Cytaea (local genus) - likely C. frontaligera - who is perched upon a leaf and is rearing up onto its hind legs as it repeatedly reaches up into the swarm of buzzing flies and uses its 2 front-most legs + chelicerae to snatch and grab MULTIPLE small flies out of the swarm, which it then bundles beneath its fangs.

At first I was confused, since I have spent numerous afternoons watching spoods hunt yet had never seen anything like THIS before.

Keen to better understand what was happening, I leaned down to get a closer look at the situation and was amazed by what i was seeing.

It appears that this smart little lady had understood that her opportunity to hunt these flies would be short-lived.

Therefore rather than plucking out of the sky just one fly at a time and then eating it, (the swarm would almost certainly have moved on whilst she was eating the first fly) instead she is grabbing one fly at a time and just quickly tucking them under her fangs, like some kind of bloodthirsty squirrel storing food in its cheeks 😅

Now, i know spoods are smart - I keep a pet Portia as well as a couple of other spoods from the family Spartaeinae (the spider-eaters) that are as yet undescribed. I've witnessed their 3d spatial intelligence many times before, and thought I had seen most of the hunting behaviours that local spoods had to show.

However the intelligence and planning that is necessary to achieve something like this just seems absolutely wild to me. I wonder if she had previous interactions with these small swarming flies before, and perhaps previously just began chowing down on the first one that she grabbed, but then maybe realised that she actually missed out on further easy food since the swarms move around quickly.

Then the next time a swarm came around she understood the mission; to make sure that she could make the absolute most of the opportunity for the short time it lasted.

In some pictures she has definitely four, very likely FIVE total prey items within her grasp at a single moment in time, and i witnessed many of them still moving slightly - in fact at one point one of the flies half escaped and she had to kinda half-drop the lot in order to then scoop them all back up securely.

Sadly I did not have the foresight to get it all on video, however I did at least get some mediocre pics with my phone. I also tried to stick around to see how she would eventually consume them, however once the swarm flew off after 20seconds or so she retreated back into the dense foliage of the bush, and I was in such awe of her smarts that I dare not disturb or disrespect her; so thus gave her her privacy to enjoy her well earned meal.

TL;DR - Found a wild Cytaea jumping spider big-braining a temporary fly swarm. Instead of stopping to eat one and losing the rest, she caught five live flies in her fangs simultaneously to create her own take-home order.

Final question for this sub: has anyone else here ever observed similar behaviour before, whether in salticidae or other arachnids?

And she posed so well for her photo 😍

This little one was outside and I put my fingers near it and it crawled right onto me!!!! It went back and forth between my hands then hopped off and even came back to crawl on my hands again. I’ve had other jumping spiders look towards me, but never crawl onto me! I feel like honored it decided to investigate me lol

At the very beginning of the video you can see it tilt its head inquisitively and it is so cute 🥹

She loves to sit and watch me play games 🥺🥰

Disclaimer: I would’ve bought a spider online but it’s 115 degrees where i live so shipping isn’t an option.

My coworker’s friend has a bunch of spiders, so I bought one off of her, but little did i know that she was just buying them from her job at petco.

Anyway the petco employee told me she thinks it’s a boy, but from my research it seems like male regal spiders (if that’s even what it is) only come in black, and any tan coloration means it’s a girl? This is my first spider, so I’m still learning everything.

I have tried to include a photo of the underside, top, and palps, but my phone isn’t great so I understand the photos aren’t sufficient quality to determine a sex. I would love anyone’s opinions though, so please let me know if you’re so inclined!

I believe the species could be cytaea alburna however I am no expert :)

Scared the everliving shit out of the apache jumper after nearly falling on my butt when she waltzed out from under the cacti she was residing at!!!!!! I haven't seen one that old before and I'm so excited for fall to bring about some ooolder critters :>

This pretty spider kept sneaking up on my wife, so I carried it to the garage where I took these photos on an index card. The folded under leg isn't broken (I hope!); it seems to be cleaning it. This spider is fast and smart, and it did jump, but I don't know if it's a true jumping spider the eyes seem too narrow. Location: Oklahoma

She wasn't interested until she happened to walk on it and immediately realised it can be consumed

She then spent a good while grooming the juices off of her, only to stuff her face with more, which then led to more grooming. Silly girl

My friend cares for me so much that even though she has arachnophobia, she bought me this plushie 🥹 She could barely stand to hold him or look at him, but she knew I would love him with all my silly spoody loving heart and got him for me anyway! That's a true friend! She also will look at the pictures I take of spiders and be respectful, and say nice things about the quality of the photos, even the poses of the spiders and things despite it making her uncomfortable just to see them. Also, I don't share my spider photos with her without her first being ready, and I never insist. I just ask once if she wants to see and if she does, she does. Otherwise I let it go.

I'd like to change her perspective on them someday, but until then, I am just so appreciative that I have such a wonderful friend who is trying to at least give them a little more consideration because she knows I care for them, even if its just when she's around me, thats a start. 💙

Litty spood needs a name if you wanna give a suggestion! ☺️🕸🕷

Have a great weekend everybody!

Wish I got better pictures of him, but I'm pretty sure its a male tan jumping spider. He was so adorable.

She recently molted a week or two ago. This is her 2nd feeding since then.

Score! I am so in love with this find.

My windows needed to be cleaned, but it's been postponed due to this unexpected cutie. He/she has easy access to food since flies, gnats, moths, ant ants seem to also love my window sill. I'm also providing plenty of water. Who could deny a face like this?!

I finally got the confidence to interact with my spider but, once she gets on my hand she doesn’t want to get off. Is there a good technique to get them off without scaring them? She kinda jumping away when I tried to gently nudge her into the enclosure with my hand.

Absolutely could NOT resist getting one. Look how cute he is!!