Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys

The test of advanced animal intelligence is tool use. More and more animals are joining the primates in this group.  This artistic spider has even learned how to make decoys.

In September, Torres was leading visitors into a floodplain surrounding Peru’s Tambopata Research Center, located near the western edge of the Amazon. From a distance, they saw what resembled a smallish, dead spider in a web. It looked kind of flaky, like the fungus-covered corpse of an arthropod.

But then the flaky spider started moving.

A closer looked revealed the illusion. Above the 1-inch-long decoy sat a much smaller spider. Striped, and less than a quarter-inch long, the spider was shaking the web. It was unlike anything Torres had ever seen. “It blew my mind,” he said.

via Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys Discovered | Wired Science | Wired.com.

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