The yellow amycine jumping spider from Canandé, Ecuador, has a remarkably transparent exoskeleton. Its giant, main eyes are like cone-shaped tubes that extend backwards from the face, and you can actually see the cones move as the spider looks from one direction to another. 

 

Here’s a video from Wayne Maddison of the University of British Columbia. The black spots on the head are the smaller side eyes. 

 

 

Unlike insects’ compound eyes, spiders have simple eyes: a retina with light-detecting cells under a lens made of a layer of cuticle. To help them focus, jumping spiders have an additional lens at the end of their primary-eye tube that’s flexible. As Wired describes it, jumping spiders have basically built themselves two little telescopes. Their retinas are layered with cells that are each specialized for a different type of vision, giving it excellent acuity and full color perception. Combined with the smaller side eyes, these spiders have nearly 360^o vision.

 

If you're not convinced that jumping spiders are adorable, look this beautiful new species of jumping peacock spider described earlier this month. 

 

[Wayne Maddison’s blog via Wired]

 

Image/video: Wayne Maddison Lab