''Phidippus cardinalis'' is a species of

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. , this family contained over 600 species description, described genus, genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spide ...

. It is commonly called cardinal jumper. It is one of the species of jumping spiders which are mimics of mutillid wasps in the genus ''

Dasymutilla ''Dasymutilla'' is a wasp genus belonging to the family Mutillidae. Their larvae are external parasites to various types of ground-nesting Hymenoptera. Most of the velvet ants in North Americathe wingless females of which are conspicuous as color ...

'' (commonly known as "velvet ants"); several species of these wasps are similar in size and coloration to the spiders, and possess a very painful sting

File:Adult male Phidippus cardinalis face.jpg, Male face File:Adult male Phidippus cardinalis dorsal.jpg, Male dorsal File:Adult female Phidippus cardinalis face.jpg, Female face File:Adult female Phidippus cardinalis dorsal.jpg, Female dorsal

Distribution

''Phidippus cardinalis'' occurs in the southern and eastern United States and Mexico, and possibly

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. It has also been confirmed in Western and Northern Colorado.

External links

''Phidippus cardinalis''
at Worldwide database of jumping spiders
''Phidippus cardinalis'' video
at archive.org
Roach, S. H. 1988. Reproductive periods of ''Phidippus'' species (Araneae, Salticidae) in South Carolina. J. Arachnol., 16:95-101
(pdf) Salticidae Spiders of North America Spiders described in 1845 Taxa named by Nicholas Marcellus Hentz {{Salticidae-stub