mumbai an endemic south asian species of jumping spider hyllus semicupreus has been discovered to feed on insect eggs for the first time ever thanks to an online networking site an amateur naturalist and wildlife photographer an suresh kumar had earlier posted photos of the spider feeding on tiny insect eggs on an online group a mumbaibased arachnologist spider specialist javed ahmed realized its significance for further researchthe research paper on the newly discovered spider behavior has now been published in the international scientific journal peckhamia an suresh kumar came across the spider feeding on leaffooted bug eggs on his farmland not knowing that he had clicked a new behavior he shared these photographs on the spiders of the indian subcontinent facebook group i chanced upon these photos and felt that it was important as it facilitated a better understanding of these spiders which are severely understudied said javed ahmedin the digital age theres a lot of potential for social media platforms to act as a bridge between scientists and hobby photographers to bring to light unique observations on the natural world never seen before an important thing to remember though is that these observations if not reported on an academic platform such as a peer reviewed scientific journal would be useless and lost forever he saidoophagy or preying on eggs is an interesting behavior which while reported in a number of jumping spiders has never before been observed in hyllus semicupreus a relatively common jumping spider this discovery is significant because leaffooted bugs are severe agricultural pests and spiders such as hyllus semicupreus can act as important pestcontrol agents said ahmedthe discovery was collaborated on by dr david e hill a world authority on jumping spiders and dr richard j pearce a leading british arachnologist