The Colours of Oz

These little Jumpers are the kittens of the spider world, so apparently playful at times the way they hop, skip and jump about in what looks like playful abandon. Not the times depicted here though. Here they are hunting ants, successfully. Ants will often travel in a line on an open surface and there you will find these spiders, waiting in the wings to pick off strays, or pouncing on the line and carrying an ant off to eat it in quiet.

These lines of ants are often guarded by soldier ants, big and ferocious fellows. But even they can become a Jumpers dinner, as you can see here – one has an ant nearly as big as itself.

Cute? Not to an ant.