Wheeler's thick-legged jumping spider

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

Description

Wheeler's thick-legged jumping spider is a small, uncommon, typical jumping spider. It occurs in the United States from Maine to New York, west to North Dakota and South Dakota, and there are isolated records in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It occurs across southern Canada from Quebec to Saskatchewan.

Adult females are ⅛″ (4.3 mm) in length and males are ⅛″ (3.3 to 3.7 mm) in length. Both sexes feature a high-contrast pattern of dark brown to black (dark) and white to off-white (pale) regions, with a dark cephalothorax and a predominantly pale abdomen.

The front part of the body (cephalothorax) is low, flat, and less than twice as long as wide. It is widest near the middle of the rear (thoracic) region and tapers more sharply toward the front than the back. The sides are vertical in front, rounded in back. The upper side (carapace) is dark, but it appears lighter due to a uniform covering of pale hairs (setae). There are eight eyes arranged in three rows. In the first row, the anterior median eyes (AME) are very close together, almost touching, and they are twice as large as the anterior lateral eyes (ALE). In the second row, the posterior median eyes (PME) are small and are closer to the first row than the third. In the third row, the posterior lateral eyes (PLE) are as far apart as the width of the carapace at that point.

The abdomen is narrow and long, longer than the cephalothorax. It is pale with a dark median stripe that is broken on the sides into six lateral branches.

The legs are almost translucent with a dark band near each joint. The first pair of legs is the stoutest, and this is the feature that gives the species its common name.

Size

Female total length: ⅛″ (4.3 mm)

Male total length: ⅛″ (3.3 to 3.7 mm)

Web

No web

Similar Species

Habitat

Ecology

Foraging

Active hunter (Cursorial Hunter)

Prey

Behavior

Life Cycle

Season

May to October

Distribution

Sources

30, 82, 83.

Admestina wheeleri G. W. Peckham & E. G. Peckham, 1888 in Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Abreu, C., Acero P, A., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (2026-06-19 XR). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgy8b