The Collaborative International Dictionary
Jumping \Jump"ing\, p.
& v
-
n. of Jump, to leap.
Jumping bean, a seed of a Mexican Euphorbia, containing the larva of a moth ( Carpocapsa saltitans). The larva by its sudden movements causes the seed to roll to roll and jump about.
Jumping deer (Zo["o]l.), a South African rodent ( Pedetes Caffer), allied to the jerboa.
Jumping louse (Zo["o]l.), any of the numerous species of plant lice belonging to the family Psyllid[ae], several of which are injurious to fruit trees.
Jumping mouse (Zo["o]l.), North American mouse ( Zapus Hudsonius), having a long tail and large hind legs. It is noted for its jumping powers. Called also kangaroo mouse.
Jumping mullet (Zo["o]l.), gray mullet.
Jumping shrew (Zo["o]l.), any African insectivore of the genus Macroscelides. They are allied to the shrews, but have large hind legs adapted for jumping.
Jumping spider (Zo["o]l.), spider of the genus Salticus and other related genera; one of the Saltigrad[ae]; -- so called because it leaps upon its prey.
Wiktionary
n. Any of very many spiders, of the family Salticidae, that jump from place to place with the aid of a silk tether.
Wikipedia
The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains over 500 described genera and over 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among arthropods and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation. Although they normally move unobtrusively and fairly slowly, most species are capable of very agile jumps, notably when hunting, but sometimes in response to sudden threats or crossing long gaps. Both their book lungs and the tracheal system are well-developed, and they use both systems (bimodal breathing). Jumping spiders are generally recognized by their eye pattern. All jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes with one pair being their particularly large anterior median eyes.
Usage examples of "jumping spider".
The guide was going on about the jumping spider, family Salticidae, genus Salticus.
He was a jumping spider of the family Salticidae, the most handsome and sophisticated of the spider clans, though not the largest or most populous.
He sprang into the air like a jumping spider and alit on the platform.
A thing came at her, dropping like a jumping spider at the end of a train of its own substance.
But before he could fire the alien pushed away from the wall with all four limbs like a jumping spider.
Lifeforce glimpsed by the Muir is not just that the Startree Biosphere survives, not just that the Brotherhood survives, not just that our Ouster brethren survive, not just that our hunted and harried sentient cousins of the Seneschai and the Akerataeli and the erg and the zeplin survive, not just that the species known as humankind survives, but that our prophecies begin to be realized this day and that all species of beloved life -- humanity no more than the soft-shelled turtle or Mare Infinitus Lantern Mouth, the jumping spider and the tesla tree, the Old Earth raccoon and the Maui-Covenant Thomas hawk -- that all species beloved of life join in rebirth of respect as distinct partners in the universe's growing cycle of life.
A black-and-white jumping spider had climbed onto the circlet, hunting a bluebottle fly that buzzed about.
Peck might be as dumb as a clod of earth, but you could never fault a jumping spider for audacity.
An arachnid biologist would easily have spotted the tiny, alert jumping spider in his evolutionary past, slightly wider than it was long, little more than a ferocious little ball of fur and fangs.