Great Lakes region, USA. May 2026.
I watched quite a few jumping spiders walk right up to a bunch of bugs and they paid them no mind. They didn't hop or fly away. They didn't try to defend themselves.
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Honestly the jumper looked like it was more curious than anything. I assumed they'd be more aggressive, but they walk by potential prey all the time without acting aggressive. They're more docile than I originally assumed.
It's mostly a function of hunger. It's quite common for actively-hunting spiders to ignore prey when they don't need to eat. After all, they don't have a web to store the extra food in.
That's what brains get you.
(Also wandering spiders just see a lot more potential food vs what occasionally falls in a static net, so they can be picky & also just not overeat. You can't kill everything, nobody can, there is too much stuff, tho humans are up to the challenge. Also killing a ladybug would be hard, it's armoured, several times heavier, prob not that tasty since it eats bugs :).)
Yes, you can definitely see them work through assessing a situation. I think that's what makes them so endearing.
There are several videos & studies how smart they are - from recognising their human in the wild to solving lab 3d mazes by looking at it from afar, figuring out the path in their minds, remembering that, and then just simply walking the maze taking all the correct turns. Their curiosity looking at the world & strolling around is ofc part of it.