FENCE POST JUMPER

Wonderful name for a spider, that. Very apt too! (If you really want its Latin name, it is Marpissa muscosa - took me a lot of research to get that!)

I was having a coffee in the garden today, watching two of these little cuties have a 'dance-off' on the fence.

They are jumping spiders (like the more famous black and white Zebra Spiders), very small, with the distinctive feature of 2 huge eyes set on the front of their face, to give excellent telescopic vision.
They will hunt down their prey, often circling behind it, and then jumping on the poor thing.

2 spiders were hunting on the same vertical bit of fence this morning, waving their palps at each other and raising their abdomens in defiance.
Both Zebra Spiders and Fence Post Jumpers (more brown than the Zebra) will happily jump on your hand if you put it near them - very friendly little things, which clearly follow you with their two huge front eyes if you get close to them...