Regal jumping spiders are large jumping spiders commonly found throughout the southeastern United States and the West Indies.
In the United States, these spiders are found from southern Mississippi all the way through North and South Carolina and are most prevalent in the Florida peninsula.
Like other jumping spiders, regal jumpers are active hunters and don’t build webs to hunt – preferring to hunt on trees, walls, and open areas!
Regal jumping spiders are hairy spiders with sexual dimorphism among males and females along with different color variations.
Check out the regal jumper’s profile below!
Regal Jumping Spider | Phidippus regius
The Phidippus regius – belonging to the genus Phidippus and commonly referred to as regal jumping spiders – are large jumping spiders commonly found in the southeastern United States with more vibrant colors found among the females in southern Florida.
Phidippus regius is their scientific name but people also call them regal jumping spiders or regal jumpers.
Description
As with all other spiders, regal jumping spiders have two main body parts which include the abdomen and cephalothorax (head and thorax fused together).
They have eight hairy legs and eight eyes (arranged in three rows) that are designed for active daytime hunting.
Regal jumpers have excellent eyesight and are sensitive to sound and vibrations thanks to their hairy bodies.
Colors
Male and female regal jumping spiders are very easy to differentiate. Males are always black with some variation of three white spots on their abdomens and white stripes on their legs.
Females are typically brown, grey, or orange in color and have similar markings as the males, just in different colors.
In both males and females, the three dots or spots on their abdomens have a resemblance to a smiley face with two eyes and a mouth.
Regal jumping spiders also have fangs that appear to be an iridescent green, blue, or violet color (depending on your vantage point from the spider).
Size
Regal jumping spiders are among some of the largest jumping spider species found around the world.
While these spiders vary in size, adult females are usually bigger than adult males on average.
Check out the table below to see regal jumping spiders’ size differences.
| Phidippus regius | Adult Male | Adult Female |
| Body Width Range | 6 to 18 (mm) | 7 to 22 (mm) |
| Body Width Average | 12 (mm) | 15 (mm) |
As you can see, Phidippus regius is much bigger than many other jumping spider species with most others having an average size under ten millimeters and some only half of that.
Behavior
Regal jumping spiders actively hunt during the day. They are aggressive to prey but are not dangerous to humans.
They are active hunters that use venom to take down their prey.
They typically go after prey about half their size but will go after prey their own size and sometimes even bigger.
Diet
Regal jumping spiders are carnivores and eat a variety of insects including caterpillars, butterflies, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, mealworms, and moths.
While mainly carnivorous, some will consume a little nectar.
Some females are even cannibals acting like black widows and eating their male counterparts on occasion.
Hunting
Having a short, strong, and stout body makes regal jumping spiders excellent hunters. They have no problem pouncing on insects around half their size.
They actively hunt during the day and use their legs to jump and pounce on prey.
Mating
During mating, regal jumping spiders may cohabitate in a single space. Males typically cohabitate with subadult females but will also share space with some adult females in order to mate.
Reproduction
After mating, female regal jumping spiders lay eggs under the bark of trees (usually oak or pine) or in secluded wooden structures such as barns or outbuildings within about three weeks of mating.
Female egg sacs can contain anywhere from 30 to 50 eggs all the way up into the hundreds.
They have an average of four clutches per year with each batch containing fewer eggs than the previous.
Distribution
Regal jumping spiders are found in the state of Mississippi all the way through the southeast and through North Carolina and South Carolina.
They are more common in places like Florida and the West Indies where the weather tends to stay warmer.
Habitat
Regal jumping spiders are commonly found in open areas, open fields, and light woodlands – with adults preferring to actively hunt on trees, fences, and on the exterior walls of buildings.
In the tropical regions, they build silken nests in the fronds of palms at night for resting.
In other areas, they rest in shrubs and trees or under whatever foliage is available in their environment.
Lifespan
Regal jumping spiders have an average lifespan between 12 to 24 months. They can live slightly longer in captivity with enough food, water, and the right habitat.
Most jumping spiders can only live up to a week without water, but some can live months without anything to eat.
Since their metabolic rate stays low when resting, their energy consumption is low enough to sustain them for a while without food.
But no matter how much water or food they take in, most won’t live past two years.
Some may live to be around three years old in captivity but don’t expect a longer lifespan than that because the oldest jumping spider on record only lived to be a mere three years old.
Regal Jumping Spider | Questions
Check out some commonly asked questions about Phidippus regius, the regal jumping spider below.
Do Regal Jumping Spiders Make Good Pets?
Regal jumping spiders can make excellent pets for the right pet owners. Phidippus regius is one of the more common jumping spider species people keep as pets.
Although regal jumping spiders can make good pets for some, there are always things to consider when getting any animal as a pet.
Things to consider before getting a regal jumping spider as a pet include:
- Their lifespan is only between 1 and 2 years
- They shy away from humans and are not aggressive
- They can be excellent beginner-friendly pets
- They require little space and not a lot of care to keep as pets
- They are more affordable than many other pets
- You may be able to handle one with enough patience
These are just some of the things to consider when thinking about getting a pet jumping spider such as a regal.
There are other things to consider that would be specific to your own situation that only you would know and have to consider before getting a spider as a pet (or any animal).
Do Regal Jumping Spiders Bite?
Just like any other jumping spider species, regal jumping spiders don’t have a tendency to bite humans.
Phidippus regius will typically only bite people when they are being hurt or feel threatened.
Bites mainly occur to humans when people attempt to handle or pick up regal jumping spiders because most jumping spiders don’t like to be handled or touched and may take that as a threat to them.
If they don’t feel threatened, they will not be aggressive and they won’t bite you.
Just don’t try to pick them up or scare them.
Are Regal Jumping Spiders Poisonous?
Just like all the other jumping spider species, regal jumping spiders possess venom that is used to incapacitate their prey and dissolve their innards for easy ingestion.
However, regal jumping spider venom is pretty harmless to humans and doesn’t typically require any medical aid.
If a regal jumping spider bites you, there may be some slight pain, swelling, and itchiness around the bite – but typically nothing worse than that.
However, with an open wound on your skin, there is always a chance of your wound getting infected.
If a spider bites you, first thing is to ensure it isn’t a poisonous or venomous spider by identifying it.
Once identified as a harmless spider, the next step is to properly treat the wound with some type of antibacterial cream just to ensure it doesn’t get infected.
In most cases, bite symptoms will regress in a few days and be fully gone within a week of initially getting bitten by a regal jumping spider.
Recap
To recap, regal jumping spiders or Phidippus regius are one of the larger jumping spider species found in the United States and are the biggest in the southeastern U.S.
Males are typically black in color with white stripes and dots while females tend to be more colorful but usually have the same type of markings as males.
Regal jumping spiders can be excellent pets for informed pet owners that know what it takes to care for a pet spider.
They are not aggressive toward humans and are not dangerous to humans.
Thank you for checking out this article about regal jumping spiders.
If you enjoyed this article, learn more amazing and interesting facts about other jumping spiders in our “spiders” category.
