Regal Jumping Spider — Fact Sheet

Phidippus regius · Regal Jumping Spider

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• House one adult in a secure 15 × 15 × 25 cm enclosure with cross-ventilation and a front or side opening that preserves the roof retreat.
• Rear small spiderlings in ventilated smaller containers with escape-proof holes.
• Observe new arrivals separately with dedicated feeding tools, noting abdomen size, prey taken and molts.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Provide anchored twigs, textured cork and leaves in the upper half.
• Keep 1–2 cm of clean coir or paper below and remove food remains promptly.
• Avoid sharp decorations, exposed adhesive and fibrous loops that trap feet.

💡 Lighting

• Provide about 12 hours of bright diffuse light so the spider can locate prey, followed by darkness.
• UVB has not been established as essential.
• Do not put the enclosure on a sunny windowsill.

🌡️ Temperature

• Use approximately 22–26°C by day and 20–22°C at night as a conservative working range.
• Measure inside the enclosure, not beside a heater.
• If heating is necessary, warm one side indirectly under thermostat control.
• Small sealed containers and direct-contact heat mats can overheat rapidly.

💧 Humidity & water

• Aim for roughly 50–70% relative humidity with moving air, rather than permanent condensation.
• Place fine drinking droplets on one wall as they dry; inspect daily because ventilation and room conditions change evaporation.
• Do not spray the spider or saturate its silk.
• Tiny spiderlings need small droplets, not an open water bowl.

🪳 Diet

Staple foods — follow the feeding schedule:

• Offer cultured fruit flies to spiderlings every 1–2 days; larger juveniles and adults can take suitable flies or small insects roughly every 3–5 days.
• Adjust to abdomen condition rather than forcing a rigid schedule.
• Prey around the spider’s body length or smaller is a useful starting point.
• Remove biting insects and uneaten prey, particularly before molting.
• Maintain a fruit-fly culture before acquiring juveniles.

In moderation:

• Adjust prey quantity to abdominal fullness and stop feeding during a molt.

Avoid:

• Pesticide-contaminated food, spoiled leftovers and unverified wild-collected foods.

Supplements:

• Reptile vitamin dusting is unnecessary.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• A closed silk retreat and food refusal often precede molting: remove prey and wait for voluntary emergence and hardened mouthparts.

• Persistent collapse, a severely shrunken abdomen, fluid loss or repeated falls need an invertebrate-experienced veterinarian.

• Venom immobilizes prey. A defensive bite can cause local pain, redness or swelling, but this species is not normally regarded as medically significant. Individual responses vary: a small mark or an apparently dry bite is not proof that symptoms cannot develop. Avoid pinching and forced handling. Wash a bite with soap and water; do not cut, suck or tightly bind it. Seek medical advice if symptoms persist or worsen and emergency help for breathing difficulty or generalized swelling. For uncertainty about the spider or reaction, contact a poison centre; do not attempt antivenom or other treatment yourself.