Regal jumping spiders in a courtship display before mating FLPA/Alamy
Jumping spiders seem to be able to tell each other apart, putting them among just a few other invertebrates that are thought to have this skill.
Recognising individuals within your species is important for social animals, such as primates, but just a handful of invertebrates have been observed to have this recognition, for example Northern paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus). This is thought to help with social cohesion within the insects’ colonies.
Now, Christoph Dahl at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland and Yaling Cheng at Taipei Medical University…
