I’ve been told that, when a species does not have a common name, I should give it one. This little fellow deserves one, don’t you think?

This handsome Metacyrba punctata jumping spider was wandering around on my garage door when I spotted him. He gave me a few choice leg gestures (“Go away! I’m busy!”) while I snapped away. He was so tiny (about 5 mm) that I could barely see which way he was facing, even though the viewfinder!

Once I looked at the photos I realized I’d got photos of him actually stalking, catching, and eating one of the house spiders (Theridion varians) which also live on my garage door.

This beautiful boy is definitely an adult male. Look at those pedipalps! He looks scandalized that I’m taking his photo right as he stepped out of the “shower” (it was a chilly, humid morning in Florida and there was dew all over the place). I do not support the practice of putting water “hats” on spiders for photography, no matter how cute it is. This little dude came already equipped with his “hat”.

I get the feeling the individual below is an immature male. It’s hard to tell at 4mm.

The below individual was performing a strange (to me) behavior: it was running along the edge of my car’s window, repeatedly “looking into the glass” and…well, really, really appearing to be looking at the spider that was in the glass (its reflection). I didn’t see any obvious threat display, but there was some emphatic leg waving. “Hey, you’re cute”? “Dude, back off”?