Spider Arachnophobia

Creepy-Crawlies are scary even to other spiders

Photo by Author. Spider tentatively identified as a type of wolf spider.

If you found the spider above burrowing into your stored blankets (as I did), does your instinctive brain scream “Run away!?” Jumping spiders have much the same response. Yes, even spiders are afraid of spiders.

In a recent study published just in time for Halloween, researcher Daniela Roessler demonstrated that jumping spiders know to get away when they see possible predator spiders. Earlier research studied spider responses to the kind of movements predators make, but Roessler showed that spiders can identify even motionless spider-like objects as potential prey.

Jumping spiders don’t build webs to capture prey. They stalk like a cat, creeping forward and staying motionless before the pounce. They also regularly prey on other jumping spiders. It makes sense, then, for these spiders to identify and avoid these potential predators, whether stationary or in motion. Being able to do so increases the chance that they will be able to avoid an attack before it is even launched.

Zebra jumping spider eating another jumping spider.r Photo Credit: Dr. Strangelove at German Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Jumping spiders have excellent vision, with a resolution even better than the keenest-eyed insects. They have eight…