Q 01/05

In 2012 a jumping spider named Nefertiti, picked through a YouTube science contest, proved she could hunt where?

A) Underwater

B) In a vacuum

C) In space

D) Underground

Answer · why

C) In space

In space, aboard the International Space Station, Nefertiti learned to stalk and catch prey without gravity. Back on Earth she readjusted to gravity a...

Q 02/05

Mothers of the jumping spider Toxeus magnus feed their young for nearly forty days on which surprising food?

A) Honey

B) Milk

C) Blood

D) Pollen

Answer · why

B) Milk

Milk, or something very like it, seeps from the mother's body and carries about four times the protein of cow's milk. Spiderlings cut off from it at b...

Q 03/05

East Africa's so-called vampire spider, a jumping spider, gets its taste of blood by hunting which insects?

A) Mosquitoes

B) Horseflies

C) Bedbugs

D) Tsetse flies

Answer · why

A) Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes that have just fed are its favourite meal, so the spider takes in vertebrate blood second-hand. It prefers the Anopheles kind, the carriers...

Q 04/05

In 1924 a British expedition's naturalist found jumping spiders living at 6,700 metres on which Himalayan peak?

A) Kangchenjunga

B) Annapurna

C) Mount Everest

D) Nanda Devi

Answer · why

C) Mount Everest

Mount Everest is home to the Himalayan jumping spider, a candidate for Earth's highest permanent resident. Its Latin species name, omnisuperstes, mean...

Q 05/05

The jumping spider genus Bagheera is named after a black panther in which classic story collection?

A) The Jungle Book

B) Just So Stories

C) The Wind in the Willows

D) Watership Down

Answer · why

A) The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book gave the genus its name in 1896, and the species kiplingi honours the author. The same scientists named three more spider genera after...