<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc2O1cfShzQ">(Click here for the video!) </a>
</p><p>It's quite difficult for me to put into words just how long I have been wanting to find an adult male of this species! 
</p><p>For the last three years, everytime I've gone out searching for bugs (or been outside for that matter) the hopes of finding and adult male Phidippus mystaceus have been in the back of my mind. Nearly everyone I know has surely heard me say something about jumping spiders by now, and many of them have heard me refer to "the jumper with yellowish-orange legs". And finally, just last week, after 3 years of dreams, drawings, and failed searches, I found one at last!
</p><p>I technically did not spot him first - a friend mine pointed him out that there was something dangling from a nearby conifer while I was laying on the ground stalking a metallic tiger beetle. As soon as I turned around and looked up, I knew it was a salticid, and as I came closer - I immediately recognized it as an adult male Phidippus mystaceus! I was ecstatic of course, but tried to contain my excitement until I had successfully caught him in a container.
</p><p>He proved to be incredibly difficult to photograph (of course!) as he was always on the move or jumping at the lens, but from time to time he would calm down and decide to clean his claws, or wipe his eyes with his palps. This would allow me to try a few higher magnification photos such as the image above (taken with the 50mm reversed on extension tubes).
</p><p>This may not be the most technically beautiful image I have ever taken, but it's certainly one of of the more monumental photographs in my portfolio and I really hope I find more males of this species in the future, they are absolutely fascinating to see in action! I recently got a tip to where some P. mystaceus females have been spotted near where i live, so I may find some more sooner than I think (hopefully before it starts getting to cold around here). 
</p><p>I apologize for the incredibly infrequent uploads lately, but I've been quite busy. Rest assured, I have a considerable amount of great macrophotos on my hard-drive, which are just waiting to be uploaded - I just need to motivate myself to get them all up sometime soon.
</p><p>I also managed to take short video of him before his release, which can be found here:
</p><p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc2O1cfShzQ">www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc2O1cfShzQ</a>
</p><p>For more photos, check out my post on Bugguide here:
</p><p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bugguide.net/node/view/340466">bugguide.net/node/view/340466</a>
</p><p>And for more information on this species, check out the Wikipedia page (with my images of a female) for Phidippus mystaceus here:
</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Phidippus_mystaceus" class="extiw" title="w:en:Phidippus mystaceus">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus_mystaceus</a>
</p><p>And as long as I'm posting links, my vintage guitar website can be found at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.KingofKays.com">www.KingofKays.com</a>
</p>
...and my artwork (with hopefully some more additions sometime soon!) can be found here: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33209413@N02/">www.flickr.com/photos/33209413@N02/</a>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/7539598@N04">Thomas Shahan</a>
CC BY 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/7539598@N04/3984515217/">Adult Male Phidippus mystaceus Jumping Spider (With Video!)</a>