Itsy Bitsy--Not!

It wasn't an itsy bitsy spider.

And it didn't climb up the water spout.

It was climbing all over the tower of jewels, ready to stalk and pounce on prey.

We spotted this male jumping spider in the genus Phidippus (as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis) cruising the interstate of a nine-foot-high tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii).

The tower of jewels is a bee-friendly plant, but it's also spider-friendly. 

The eight-eyed jumping spider (four large eyes on its face and four smaller eyes on top of the head) is considered an excellent predator because of its keen eyesight and amazing speed.  Although it's only about two centimeters (less than 0.8) long, it  can jump about 40 to 50 times its length. It's distinguished, too, by its iridescent green chelicerae or mouthparts.

The kneeling photographer and the jumping spider went eye to eye--well, two eyes versus eight eyes--and then the spider crawled under a stem.

I was hoping it would jump.