Spider Discovered That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys

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Spider Discovered That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 18, 2012 @07:25PM 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."

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or maybe by Torvac · 2012-12-18 19:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

it builds a monument of its spider god ? our next overlord
1. Re:or maybe by qbitslayer · 2012-12-18 20:35 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  No. It's a monument to evolution because evolution designs everything even though it's not trying to design anything.
2. Re:or maybe by TapeCutter · 2012-12-19 02:49 · Score: 2
  
  Spiders are master engineers, there's an Attenbourough clip somewhere of a spider that hoists empty snail shells up into a bush and ties it to a branch as a house. There's another kind that makes a sort of catapult out of silk to shoot down bugs. Some orb weavers put shock absorbers in the center of their webs. You can tell they don't "know" what they are doing because all members of the species build the same structures. I can understand people not wanting to touch them, I can't understand the sheer terror some people display at the sight of them.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It can count... by DSS11Q13 · 2012-12-18 19:41 · 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 flyingfsck · 2012-12-18 19:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You thought that spiders are stupid, eh? They go to school, where they learn reeling and writhing...
  
  --
  Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
2. Re:It can count... by michelcolman · 2012-12-18 21:09 · 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.
3. Re:It can count... by Volguus+Zildrohar · 2012-12-18 21:27 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Of course the spider can't count. It's just that the spiders who made 6 and 7 legged decoys got eaten by the birds that could count.
  
  --
  When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.
4. Re:It can count... by SomePgmr · 2012-12-18 21:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Spiders hate it when someone shows their unfinished work.
as the saying goes now... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-18 19:51 · Score: 2, Funny

Damn nature you scary!
Gotta love by Nyder · 2012-12-18 20:00 · 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...
1. Re:Gotta love by michelcolman · 2012-12-18 21:16 · 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.
2. Re: Gotta love by Rational · 2012-12-19 03:26 · Score: 2
  
  The spider is obviously on DPS duty while the decoy tanks.
  
  --
  "Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass
3. Re:Gotta love by amicusNYCL · 2012-12-19 04:56 · Score: 2
  
  You might assume too much about the abilities of flying insects. The bugs around my house can't seem to avoid hitting a wall or myself, much less a nearly invisible web.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Holoduke by MrEricSir · 2012-12-18 20:12 · Score: 4, Funny

Someone should check if the spiders were doing this before 1996, because I bet they stole the idea from Duke 3D.

--
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
1. Re:Holoduke by azalin · 2012-12-18 20:50 · Score: 2
  
  Nay, they reached their final form after countless years of tinkering. Oh well... They do have something in common with a certain Duke title.
That's fuckin' awesome! by hack++slash · 2012-12-18 20:54 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm going to do the same to ward off other people.

*builds giant man in garden out of wicker*

--
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
1. Re:That's fuckin' awesome! by Provocateur · 2012-12-19 03:06 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "No, that's not our neighbor, that's got three legs."
  "He must be compensating."
  
  --
  WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Question i'd like to know the answer to.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-18 21:31 · 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.
Re:Creepy... by kale77in · 2012-12-18 22:20 · Score: 2

Mimic was my all-time #1 bad-science movie, for one single, monumental plot hole. In order to develop, the mega-roaches needed selection pressures to favour those that resembled humans, but no humans or other predators were even aware of them, let alone selectively killing off the non-humanoid ones.
That Anansi, such a tricksy one! by mekkab · 2012-12-19 01:05 · Score: 3, Funny

But what happens when that spider discovers tar, makes an ersatz spider out of it, drinks too much, and fights with it?

--
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.