Spider Discovered That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys 119
OakDragon writes "A newly discovered species of spider — apparently of the genus Cyclosa — has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon. The spider builds an elaborate decoy out of web, twigs, and other scraps, which appears to be a much larger spider. The spider will even cause the decoy to move, marionette-style, by shaking the web."
or maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Gotta love (Score:3, Interesting)
What I don't understand, though, is that a big spider hanging in a web is probably likely to scare off not only predators, but prey as well. What self-respecting insect is going to fly straight past a big spider? Surely evolution must have "taught" them by now that where a big spider is floating in mid-air, there's probably a web around it?
And what about predators interested in eating big spiders?
On the other hand, this construction may actually be quite effective in keeping big, clumsy animals like, say, humans, from destroying the web accidentally. Maybe that outweighs the visibility to prey.
Question i'd like to know the answer to.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Is does the spider know that what it's built looks like it? This could have evolved to look like a spider from a predators perspective but the spider probably has no idea what its making.