Oh, My: A New Species of Spider Constructs Decoy Spiders Out of Webs, Detritus, and Dessecated Corpses of Old Kills

Via Purp in the sidebar, I am posting this because it's kind of a rule that Spider News gets mainpaged.

What the hell, man?

Not real. The real spider is a tiny little thing
you can barely see, hiding in the Decoy Spider body

The article doesn't say (unless I've missed it) why they build these decoys. The only possible reason I can imagine is that there are some cuckoo-type spiders which just steal other spiders' webs -- take them over, kill or drive out the webs' actual builder -- and so smaller spiders are making big fake Spider Decoys to warn away such webjackers.

Or, even simpler: Another spider that feeds on smaller spiders, or some other insect that does so.

Or a bird.

But I just made that up. The article provides no hint that I can see of the purpose of a Fake Spider in a web. Wouldn't a Fake Spider in a web warn away prey?

Also via Purp, the Internet of Real Life Things is probably going to allow the Hacking of Real Life Things.

Explanation: Kirk, I think, nailed it:

It's just a selfie.

Dudes always try to make themselves appear bigger than they really are in selfies.

Oh My: This is from May of 2012, but it's horrifying.

Ever see Kingdom of the Spiders? That's right, with William Shatner, when he was still struggling after the cancellation of Star Trek and doing B-movies.

The last shot of that film was a whole town covered in spider's webs. Matte painting, you know-- the height of 70s special effects. (No condescension intended; I loved matte painting shots.)

Well, this isn't quite that, but it's similar.

Look at that farm. You'd think they were actually growing spiderwebs.

Oh my Lord: I didn't notice this picture.

Content warning. It involves a dog.

The dog is unharmed. But the image is still frightening.

posted by Ace at 05:40 PM

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