10th October Jumping Spider Day

International Jumping Spider Day celebrates a group of spiders that constitute the family Salticidae, the largest family of spiders. They’re amazing hunters, stalking their insect prey like a cat stalks a bird. They can calculate distances eerily well, and leap flawlessly from one perch to the next. Jumping spiders are the most numerous group of spiders on the planet, with a couple hundred different species. Salticids are known for their flashy colors, courtship rituals, and expressive, forward-facing eyes.

We have jumping spiders in Australia.

Key characteristics:

• Appearance: 

  Small in size, with large, expressive eyes and excellent vision. 
• Habitat: 

  Found in gardens, wet forests, urban areas, and on vegetation across Australia. 
• Behaviour: 

  Active during the day, they stalk prey, use their strong legs to leap, and do not build webs to catch food. 
• Mating: 

  Males often perform elaborate, colourful mating dances to attract females, as seen in the famous peacock spiders.

  Danger to humans: 

  Jumping spiders are non-aggressive, and any bites are minor, with symptoms limited to the bite site. 

  
  

  Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider by Jessica Lanan is a beautiful nonfiction book that 

  explores the tiny, secret world of backyard jumping spiders, but also includes robust back matter sure to delight young readers and educators alike. It has won several awards for children's publishing.

  
  

  If you are looking for less or simpler text and photographs, look for these:

  
  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

8th to the 12th of October, International Cephalopod Awareness Days

Every year from the 8th to the 12th of October, International Cephalopod Awareness Days come around to teach the world about cephalopods. This event is all about celebrating and sharing how fascinating and incredible they are!

October 8   – Octopus Day, for all the eight-armed species

October 9   – Nautilus Night, a time for all the lesser-known extant cephalopods

October 10 – Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day, or Squittleday, covering the tentacular species

October 11 – Kraken Day, for all the fantastical cephalopods of myth, movies, literature and legend

October 12 – Fossil Day (to coincide with National Fossil Day), for all the incredible suckers that have gone extinct but left an impression with us.

I have written about this week before here and about Octopus Day here, but since then new books have been added to the library, so here are some to look for on each of these days.

Octopus:

Nautilus:

Squid:

Kraken:

Fossils: