danny6114: Meet A Tiny, Decoy-Building Spider

Share This

December 18, 2012
Meet A Tiny, Decoy-Building Spider

Image courtesy Phil Torres

It's never fun to be the smallest -- after all, you're always getting picked on by someone bigger than you. But at least one tiny spider has come up with a way to intimidate and confuse would-be predators: It builds a decoy.

This 5mm-long spider -- probably a new species in the genus Cyclosa -- was discovered by biologist and science educator Phil Torres at Peru's Tambopata Research Center. The arachnid arranges small pieces of leaves, debris, and dead insects along specialized silk strands called stabilimenta in a symmetrical shape. The end result looks like a bigger spider (complete with legs) that the small spider hides above or behind to protect itself from bigger predators.

Spiders in the Cyclosa genus are known for putting debris in their web to attract prey or to confuse predators like paper wasps, which end up eating the debris instead. But none of the spiders build a decoy as detailed as this arachnid. Torres and his team found approximately 25 of the spiders in one floodplain area, and plan to collect specimens to determine if it is, in fact, a new species.