Look out world! Dimple is officially out on the town and stoked to be free. I was kind of sad this morning knowing it was time to say farewell to the little jumping spider. But one look at the container of baby spider food- basically all stages of maggots- strengthened my resolve. Our goodbyes were quick. I thanked her for all the fun memories she created with my students this year, and for convincing me that spiders are very cool and sometimes even cute. She silently stared back at me without emotion. This is a typical interaction for us, decidedly one-sided. Spiders don’t have feelings like dogs or cats do, as far as I can understand they pretty much assess things as either “threat” or “non-threat” for basic survival purposes. I like to think that if for some reason Dimple ever ended up huge and I was in her hungry path, she would recognize me and remember that I was not a threat, even when she was tiny, and choose to keep going. Hopefully this is never put to the test. I’ve grown accustomed to Dimple’s quiet company and will miss her expressionless observation of everything. I will not miss her hundreds of offspring, though. I wish them all the best!
Once we went outside, I set the enclosure on the ground just to let her take it all in for a bit. Jumping spiders have the best eyesight of any arachnid or insect, and I wasn’t sure if she’d find her new surroundings overwhelming. She climbed around to each side of the enclosure, spending time looking in every direction. After a while I put her enclosure between my lemon tree and one of my tomato plants. She was too big to put on a tomato flower, so I opted for the lemon tree. I opened the door to her enclosure and set her near the branches, thinking she would leave of her own accord. She looked curious but also suspicious. Minutes passed without any movement. Eventually I put one of the branches in the enclosure with her, almost touching her and the web that still held some of the baby spiders. The leaves got stuck in the web and Dimple started crawling on it, then when I moved the enclosure both she and a bunch of the baby spiders stayed on the branch. The newly free Dimple crept around and got comfy on a warm leaf, just watching the world around her. The baby spiders were all over the place: hopping, crawling, hanging down like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, and even flying away on their little strands of silk catching the breeze. I tried carefully moving a bunch of them onto tomato plants- I am still hoping they’ll be incidental pollinators of tomato flowers and contribute to a more prosperous harvest.
Overall, I think the release party was a great success. Dimple crawled around and leisurely lounged on the lemon tree and its planter for most of the day. In the evening, she crawled under the gate and I have not seen her since. I hope she finds the perfect spot for her next round of eggs! The baby spiders have all dispersed, but if I look closely I can still find a few of them on each of the tomato plants and the lemon tree. I even got footage of an adorable baby jumping spider flying away on its little silk parachute. They are so small and it happens so quickly that it’s hard for the camera to focus and capture any detail, but you’ll get a hint of the idea. I also got some cute pictures of wild Dimple before she peaced out for bigger and better things. May she and her future babies live long and prosper!
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