Observations by jessica5

Spider was found on a lettuce plant in High Tech High's community garden. The school is near San Diego International Airport, Naval Base and Marina. The weather is mostly cloudy, 66 degrees.

The spider was identified as a Jumping Spider (Family: Salticidae Genus: Phidippus) due to its size (5mm), its brown-red abdomen and white stripe on the joint between abdomen and cephalothorax. The spider was observed to jump. Also, the environment where the spider was found (lettuce plant) matched one habitat characteristic of the genus.

Note: We were not able to identify to the species level. However, we suspect the spider is a juvinile Red Backed Jumping Spider (Phidippus johnsoni) as two adult males were found in the same habitat on the same date and time. The adult males were measured to be 1 cm in length.