Right?! 
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I know people far from nature react to their photos the same way
Oh, I certainly I know some people who are not naturalists who do as well, but your initial statement was that
jumping spiders are always seen as cute, maybe too much
(emphasis mine)
as if it was universally accepted amongst all peoples the world over that jumping spiders are cute, perhaps even too cute, and that is just not true. Maybe it is universally true among all naturalists or perhaps in your geographic region, but at least here where I live and among my non-naturalist friends, neighbors and family members, it is, alas, not a universally accepted truth.
Of course it would be nice to see adoring attention heaped on other spiders but one cannot choose what one finds cute. It is almost an instinctive reaction, and exaggeratedly large eyes often trigger this reaction, which is why they are prominent in kawaii merchandise. But we can take heart from how many of the creatures featured here do not have large eyes and are not babies or even mammals. There are even adorable fungi! :)
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Lettered Habrosyne - Habrosyne scripta
Pink-shaded Fern Moth - Callopistria mollissima
Alder Spittlebug - Clastoptera obtusa
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That’s me flipping through the ID books I have…. I am getting better, but after a few minutes I’ll have to look away!
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I think I may have always had a kind of ‘cute-blindness’. I mostly know ‘cute’ from what others reference. At least, the popular kind.
So, I’m going to guess here with my choice from my collection:
Chocolate Tube Slime Mold
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I always think it’s cute when the lifeform is doing whatever its named after. For example, in this observation, the Encelia Leaf Beetle is resting on an Encelia farinosa leaf:
Sorry, not the clearest image due to low morning light.
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A lot of you guys have very different ideas of what is cute. A lot of the insect pictures in this thread, to me were… just insects. No particular reaction.
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Yes, I hadn’t thought of those, there are lots of cute slime molds.
Cute is obviously in the eye of the beholder, just as beauty is.
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When my older son was in second or third grade, cannot remember which now, his teacher announced one Friday that she was going to write a word the students would not know on the board and they should silently either draw what they thought it was or write what they thought it was.
She wrote the word, and my child picked up a crayon and drew a creature with fur much like your slime mold all over its body. Only big round eyes eyes poked through, plus he gave it small birdlike feet below.
When he came home that, afternoon he brought his picture with him, and I wondered what it was so I asked. “Tell me about what you drew.” And he said, “Well, this is a Thesaurus, which I think was a type of dinosaur but not a very fierce one so not a Thesaurus Rex.”
And that sweet little “Thesaurus” hung on the side of our fridge facing the breakfast table for many years, because it was, in fact, very cute. So is your Chocolate Tube Slime Mold. It looks playful and a little unruly.
(The following Monday the teacher explained what a thesaurus was and showed them how utilizing one could help their writing not be quite so always full of the same words over and over.)
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No–not just inaturalist–people are actually raising jumping spiders and selling them as pets! And there are tons of videos on YouTube of jumping spiders, so I think there is a fairly large crowd of folks who really think jumping spiders are exceedingly cute. (Me included!)
If I see an exceptionally cute jumping spider, I may keep it in a terrarium (I can’t spell at all so forgive me) for a few days, giving it treats I catch for it, and try to take some good photos. I’m still working on the photo part though because I’m not a good macro photographer. But I always let it go after a few days and try to release it in the area where I found it so hopefully there is no harm done.
But jumping spiders seem to be very popular these days.
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