Phidippus cardinalis

This was a jumper high on my wish list for a few years but I couldn't seem to find one. Little did I know I was actually finding them and photographing them and I just didn't know it. While I was looking for the classic bright red jumper I didn't realize that the early instars were actually yellow and as they approached the final molt they got progressively more orange. I did find many of the yellow early instars in my first summer searching for jumpers and classified them as "unknown jumping spider, need ID". I revisited the location later in the summer and found lots of bright orange subadult P cardinalis :-). This species matures in the fall here in MA and that is when they have the signature bright red coloration. While I found bright red females as well I also found many of the female in a brown form. I'll post the females soon.
Canon 6D, 580EX Flash, Handmade diffuser, SS 1/125, F13, ISO 200. Single exposure becuase he didn';t want to freeze long enough for a focus stack in this capture. Photo © copyright by Patrick Zephyr.