Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary
animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the
world For most of us, blurry vision is a bad thing, if only
because it means we're going to have to spend a lot of money on
a new pair of glasses. For one jumping spider, though, it's how
it catches dinner. Adanson's house jumper, as the name implies,
is a jumping spider. It springs on unsuspecting prey insects
from several centimetres away and swiftly dispatches them. To
pull off these leaps, it has to be an excellent judge of
distance. And for that, paradoxically, it has part of its visual
field permanently out of focus. It's the only animal known to
judge distance in this way. Stalk, jump and bite The Adanson's
house jumper is a cosmopolitan species – meaning it lives all
over the place. It hunts during the day, pouncing on insects and
other prey, although like many jumping spiders it may also take
the occasional drink of nectar. To cope with its agile
lifestyle, it must have excellent eye