User:Kaldari/Salticid jumps

Numerous claims have be made about the maximum range of salticid jumps with little to no data to substantiate them. While the majority of these claims are made in the realm of popular culture – usually books, magazine articles, or television shows about spiders – academic sources are not immune from making such claims as well, typically with no better explanation as to where the figures comes from.

In popular media, we frequently see claims that saltcids can jump 50, 80, or even 100 times their body length. A quick search on Google shows the BBC, the Discovery Channel, and even National Geographic reporting the "50 times" figure, while Animal Planet tests the limits of the public's credulity by claiming that jumping spiders can jump horizontally up to "6.5 feet" (about 2 meters). Despite the extreme nature of these claims, in case after case, no sources or data are given to back them up. Not even a convincing video clip is offered.

Given the abundance and diversity of such claims in the popular media, one would expect for there to be a significant body of data in the scientific literature upon which these claims are based. However, the reality is quite different...

Unspecific claims

 * 40 times body length – American Spiders (1949) by Willis Gertsch, no source given
 * 50 times body length – Invertebrate Zoology by Rupert, Fox, and Barnes, no source given

Realistic published claims for specific species

 * Sitticus pubescens can jump up to 7 cm (actual measurement) or 10 cm (estimated from take-off velocity) – Parry & Brown (1959). "The Jumping Mechanism of Salticid Spiders".

Unpublished claims

 * Habronattus coecatus can jump up to 13.2 cm (or 24 times body length) (actual measurement) – David Hill, email
 * Naprys pulex can jump up to 8.93 cm (or 29 times body length) (actual measurement) – own video