Besides 'daddy-long-legs', Salticids are probably the most commonly encountered spiders in homes. It seems a number of species adapted for life on tree trunks, rocky outcrops and other hard structures have found our walls and crevices apt abodes. Mosquitoes, flies, gnats, flying ants, undersized wasps, beetles and bugs that fit their maw are all fair game, unless the resident human adopts a chemical policy of wholesale intolerance for all housemates not made in his own image. Like sparrows, rats and certain ducks, these spiders have accompanied man across oceans to colonise new lands and invade fresh territories.
Not quite as colourful as their cousins in the trees, domestic jumping spiders are still cute little hoppers with bristly chins and bright eyes that will peer with curious intensity at bipedal beholders before their owner waves a hairy palp and swivels to make a leap several times its body length. If two individuals are placed within each other's line of sight, a confrontation or more likely a furious chase by the larger spider often ensues.
House jumpers come in different genera and garbs. One species bears a pale crescent, while another features sexually dimorphic striping. Another has a dorsal white stripe. The lady above, probably of this species, was lording over the beams of a small shelter overlooking Pekan Quarry on Pulau Ubin. She played a tireless round of hide-and-peep around the pole, bashfully avoiding eye contact as far as possible and forcing a reduction in depth of field to get a better chance of freezing her features. She might have landed at the hut as a spiderling, riding on a sail of silk from the nearby village to found a house of hard knocks and high contrasts.
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