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These unspeakably small (~3mm) jumping spiders are full grown! and unimaginably cute. Without looking through the camera’s macro lens, I can only barely tell there is a small moving speck on the wooden boardwalk rail — I cannot imagine locating one of these on, say, tree bark.

Despite being adorable, these poor things suffer from Wikipedia Stub Syndrome. They are native to the eastern United States, and look almost, but not quite, exactly like their cousins, Admestina archiboldi. (Since A. archiboldi has no recorded sightings in bugguide, I’m tempted to feel they’re much more rarely sighted, and I’m more likely to have accidentally wandered by the more common A. tibialis with its many bugguide sightings. Or maybe people are reporting both species as A. tibialis no matter which is which.

(I’m a little bummed out about spider identification right now, sorry. SO MANY ALMOST IDENTICAL SPECIES)

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I’m pretty sure this next individual is another A. tibialis, but as always, grain of salt, etc., etc. No microscopes or dissections were involved in this identification and it is therefore suspect.

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Identified via iNaturalist: (first individual) (second individual).