Genus Tutelina: Dendryphantines characterized by unusual chelicerae with a very stout fang and a keel along the medial margin. Typically uniform colored, from gray or green to black, though T. harti is often mottled. Some species have a prominent V-shaped tuft of black hairs above anterior eye row. Some species, esp. T. formicaria, are reasonably antlike. Probably all specialize on eating ants. A closely related genus is Poultonella. The two share the unusual chelicerae. -- From Tree of Life, © 1994-1995 Wayne Maddison

Jumping spiders are easily distinguished from other spiders by their four big eyes on the face and four smaller eyes on top of the head. Around the world there are probably more than 5000 species of jumping spiders. Jumping spiders are charming lil buggers that look up and watch you.  Although a jumping spider can jump more than fifty times its body length, none of its legs has enlarged muscles. The power for jumping comes from a quick contraction of muscles in the front part of the body increasing the blood pressure, which causes the legs to extend rapidly much as the hydraulics in a low-rider car.

Their vision also allows communications by visual means, such as the elaborate courtship dances that males perform. Salticids are perhaps as old and diverse as mammals, though not many humans know their world. Many salticids are colorful, they take on a variety of body forms, and some have disguises, looking like ants and other organisms. The bright colors and elaborate forms of some jumping spider species are involved in courtship.