Photography from Maui, including a giant jumping spider

[MarkSturtevant]

Here I wrap up the pictures from my trip to Maui last summer.

Katydid eating a praying mantis ootheca (egg case). I don't know the species, but the genus looks to be Conocephalis.
Meadow katydid eating a mantis ootheca by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Gulf fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae). This is a species that also ranges thru the southern U.S., but it was a first for me.
Gulf fritillary by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

One of the most exciting finds was this giant jumping spider (Ascyltyus pterygodes). This is one of the largest jumping spiders in the world.
Giant Hawaiian jumping spider by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Giant Hawaiian jumping spider by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
To get an idea of the size, here are links to some videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfIg8V-hY2E
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itoasN_tdjU (the ending is amusing).

[rjlittlefield]

Quite the chelicerae on that spider!

I'm surprised to hear that this is one of the largest jumping spiders. It looks about the same size as the large female Phidippus audax (or closely related species) that is now guarding eggs in my grapevine. I had casually expected that someplace there would be much larger species.

--Rik

[MarkSturtevant]

P. audax seems considerably smaller to me. But maybe we can get other opinions on it.