Spider Olympics!

Well they say these jumpin' spiders can jump 20 times their body length...

And the best eyesight, I guess that's because they have all those cool eyes....

One day at work, I came back to my desk to find a small, black jumping spider, as seen here:

He was on the face of my computer monitor, and it was quite amusing to watch as he followed my mouse pointer anywhere I would lead him, all over the screen! I guess he thought it was an insect, and he was hungry!

Tom D.

What, like:

• the 200m Butterfly for butterflies
• the 100m Crawl for centipedes
• the weight lifting for elephants
• the 200m Sprint for cheetahs

and stuff like that?

The Cheetahs will surely get disqualified
Del

Your spider story 'minds me of some wasps I was watching on holiday in France*.

First I saw one flying just above the surface of the swimming pool, then apparently collide with a wavelet (from the filter pump) and end up on its side on the surface. "Ha!" thought I - "one down!" But it struggled for a while, righted itself and stood on the surface (a la pond skater), and took off.

I saw this happen about 4 or 5 times, with most of the wasps managing to land on their feet and take off without mishap. The pool was chlorinated, but the tablets only went in once a week, on Wednesdays, and this was on a Tuesday. I didn't notice it again during the week.

I've never seen this behaviour before, despite many hours sitting staring at both still and flowing fresh water in the UK, while fishing.

* I was definitely on holiday - don't know about the wasps.

How about some of those "circus fleas" doing the long jump or the high jump?

Interesting concept Del! But will NBC spend a $Billion to televise it like the 2012 London Games? ahahahahhahaa yeah, right!

1. I once observed a spider go after a nice, fat fly that became entangled in the web. The spider was one of those robust, hairy, evil looking ones. Creepy. Anyway, a wrestling match ensued. It's amazing how fast that spider moved. The fly didn't stand much of a chance and it expired after a short tussle.

2. I was in my garage with some friends throwing back a few rums. A spider was rappelling down his thread onto my workbench, so I put my glass on the bench, directly under him. He continued to rappel down until he was just below the rim of the glass, when he suddenly curled up into a ball and just hung there. I figure he became instantaneously loaded, the fumes knocking him out. Maybe there wasn't enough oxygen that close to the rum? He woke up a few minutes after I removed the glass.

3. There is a squirrel that runs along the hydro line in the lane behind our house. He sometimes loses his balance, but never falls off. I've also seen him hang by his back feet after a bird unsuccessfully tries to pluck him off the line.

How do you test spiders for doping?

It'd be nice to have the shoe concession, too.