Gray Wall Jumping Spider

Gray wall jumpers are dorso-ventrally flattened and are covered with short dense, grayish-white hairs. There are tufts of dark brown bristles near the large, forward-facing eyes. The spiders are about nine millimetres long, the male being slightly smaller than the female. The male has a blackish longitudinal dorsal stripe with a brownish-white stripe on either side of the abdomen. The carapace and chelicerae are also black and white and the legs have transverse bandings of the same colours. The female is generally paler and more brown, with a larger carapace and abdomen. Her carapace is edged with two black bands and a thin white stripe and her abdomen is edged with broad black stripes on each side which unite at the posterior end. Her legs are banded but are paler than those of the male. Immature spiders resemble the female.

Menemerus bivittatus is native to the Sub-Saharan region in Africa with Nigeria, Kenya, DR Congo, South Africa, Senegal, etc. but has been widely introduced, resulting in a cosmopolitan distribution. In America, the species is found in Florida, Texas, and California (USA) and south as far as Paraguay, including some Caribbean islands, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is often seen on the outside of man-made structures.