Hi Deep Look and KQED Science Fans, Maybe it's their big eyes or their extra fuzziness, but something about jumping spiders just makes them cuter than other spiders. When you look at them up close, they seem to look back as if they’re curious about us too. Even those with a fear of spiders often admit there’s something endearing about them. The size of your fingernail, regal jumping spiders aren’t content hanging around in a web waiting for prey to come to them. They act more like miniature mountain lions, stalking and pouncing on their prey before delivering a deadly bite. But unlike lions, who learn from their moms, jumping spiders need to teach themselves how to hunt. For this episode, I filmed with arachnologist Trinity Walls, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies jumping spider mating behavior. Check out this action-packed episode! Also in this newsletter, our news team reports on the scientists, conservationists and community members rallying to try and raise funds to save San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center (EOS). Over the years, Deep Look has worked closely with SFSU researchers to film episodes at EOS about animals they study, such as eelgrass sea hares. Don't miss this article and our special SFSU ocean playlist.
Josh Cassidy, Deep Look lead producer and cinematographer
A jumping spider starts honing its ability to stalk, pounce and dispatch its prey when it is no bigger than a sesame seed. By the time it reaches the size of a bottle cap, it’s a ferocious hunter.
Evolution has produced an incomplete miracle: Homo, a species that can love, think, communicate, and create amazing science and art described here. Unfortunately Homo is not yet sapiens/wise enough to avoid self-destruction. May Homo still become SAPIENS? Yes. If you want to improve our world, The Human Condition is available to purchase on Amazon.
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Our Latest Science Stories
Katharyn Boyer, interim EOS executive director and professor of biology, looks into a seagrass nursery, at San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science center, in Tiburon on April 23, 2025.
KQED SCIENCE Help Choose the Next Read for KQED’s Climate Book Club KQED’s Climate Book Club wants your vote! Help pick our next read — from sci-fi to ag history to Indigenous rights — and join the convo on Discord. Make your selection by May 5.
SCIENCE FRIDAY The Future Of Science Reporting, Live In San Francisco On Tuesday, April 29, join Ira Flatow in conversation with journalists, including KQED’s climate reporter Ezra David Romero, to discuss the role of science writing in our current cultural climate.
🥚A couple of weeks after mating, a female regal jumping spider lays 50-200 eggs inside her silky nest. Then she guards the eggs. 👶When spiderlings hatch they spend their first weeks crawling around in the nest under the eight watchful eyes of their mom. 🗡️Once they head out on their own, babies teach themselves to stalk, catch and kill their prey. 👀👀👀👀Their 8 eyes have different functions, helping them to avoid predators and judge distances so they can land on target and score a meal. ☠️With their fangs, these spiders deliver venom that paralyzes and liquifies prey like crickets and flies.
PLAYLIST
Deep Look's San Francisco State University Ocean Episodes
Deep Look has filmed several episodes about tiny ocean creatures with the help of scientists from San Francisco State University, including the Estuary and Ocean Science Center it operates out in Tiburon, California.
This predatory insect spends most of its time underwater, swimming around upside down on its back. One of its favorite snacks is mosquito larvae loitering at the surface. It will stab the mosquito with its beak, inject digestive enzymes, and suck out its meal, leaving an empty husk. What is it? Find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
Behind The Scenes
Filming Jumping Spiders with Trinity Walls
Trinity Walls, originally from North Carolina, is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the mating behavior and hybridization in two species of Phidippus jumping spiders: regal jumping spiders (Phidippus regius) and canopy jumping spiders (Phidippus otiosus). Josh Cassidy, Deep Look's lead producer and cinematographer, worked with Trinity to film this new episode. In this behind-the-scenes video she explains why she's not afraid of spiders and loves studying these fascinating arachnids. Find out more over on Patreon.
Get ready for KQED’s 8th Annual Youth Takeover Week, where young voices across the Bay Area literally take over KQED’s airwaves and digital platforms. Between April 21 to April 25, teenagers will share their stories and tackle the issues that matter to them most: education, climate change, identity, mental health and the future of technology. Check out our youth-driven articles on kqed.org, catch their clips on KQED 9 or tune in to KQED 88.5 FM. Join us in championing the power of youth storytelling — because they aren’t just the voices of the future, they’re the changemakers of the present.
