Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys Discovered

<i>“Considering that spiders can already make really impressive geometric designs with their webs, it’s no surprise that they can take that leap to make an impressive design with debris and other things,”</i><p>Sure, but what is more interesting is how such a spider would know what itself looks like.

Could this decoy be used in the mating ritual to attract females rather than something to do with predators? From my limited reading, many spiders have rather elaborate mating rituals. Also with females being larger and usually killing the smaller male spiders, having a decoy to distract the female might allow the spider to stay alive longer and mate with more female spiders.

so seriously, how does behavior like this evolve?<p>step 1. less-evolved spider builds random clump on web<p>step 2. spider achieves benefit of scaring off more predators<p>step 3. spider with clump-building ability becomes dominant species as it outperforms and outcompetes non-talented spiders<p>step 4. spider with clump-building ability builds less-random clump<p>step 5. repeat step 2 thru 4 until spider-like clump achieved<p>my question with this hypothesis is, why does the clump-building behavior end up with something that looks like a spider and not something that would give the spider an even greater evolutionary edge, like say, a tiger's face?

Wow, just wow. Not that I'm a big fan of spiders mind you but a spider that creates 'fake' spiders as decoys? That is pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing it.

Am I the only one who thought the story is about web spiders?

Another interesting spider - peacock spider:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgAbyYDFeg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgAbyYDFeg</a>

It seems like spider weaving is such a natural and central ability to spiders. What's more it's hackable. Some wasps inject chemicals that manipulate them to create a habitat for their eggs and be even eaten alive.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenoepimecis_argyraphaga" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenoepimecis_argyraphaga</a>

the questions is how does he know how he looks like? is he looking at other spiders? maybe he looked into a reflection on the water? or does he simply just know?

Even they're cloning themselves? I think we're falling behind in the race

pretty amazing that they can make something to scare the big guys while catching the small guys. also prevent the bigger guys from ruining the trap.

I'd love it if ducks did this.

Maybe spiders see themselves through offsprings.