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Spider Discovered That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys

Posted by Soulskill on from the welp-it's-been-a-good-run dept.

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."

4 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. It can count... by DSS11Q13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    for some reason, the thing I'm marveling at the most is that it knows it has 8 legs. How?!

    Why not 6 or 7? ...because 7, 8, 9?

    1. Re:It can count... by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's just due to selection... by the photographer. There's another picture further down in the article where the decoy only seems to have five legs. But of course the one that looks most like a spider, with eight legs, was selected for the top of the article.

  2. Gotta love by Nyder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    evolution.

    Not only did this spider decided it needed a bigger version of itself to scare off would be predators, it knew it had to make it move to look be really effective.

    I know people who aren't even this smart.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  3. Re:or maybe by qbitslayer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No. It's a monument to evolution because evolution designs everything even though it's not trying to design anything.