In both cases, nothing happens at first. The Epeira remains in her
motionless attitude, even when the morsel is at a short distance in front
of her. She is indifferent to the presence of the game, does not seem to
perceive it, so much so that she ends by wearing out my patience. Then,
with a long straw, which enables me to conceal myself slightly, I set the
dead insect trembling.
That is quite enough. The Banded Epeira and the Silky Epeira hasten to
the central floor; the others come down from the branch; all go to the
Locust, swathe him with tape, treat him, in short, as they would treat a
live prey captured under normal conditions. It took the shaking of the
web to decide them to attack.
Perhaps the grey colour of the Locust is not sufficiently conspicuous to
attract attention by itself. Then let us try red, the brightest colour
to our retina and probably also to the Spiders'. None of the game hunted
by the Epeirae being clad in scarlet, I make a small bundle out of red
wool, a bait of the size of a Locust. I glue it to the web.
My stratagem succeeds. As long as the parcel is stationary, the Spider
is not roused; but, the moment it trembles, stirred by my straw, she runs
up eagerly.
There are silly ones who just touch the thing with their legs and,
without further enquiries, swathe it in silk after the manner of the
usual game. They even go so far as to dig their fangs into the bait,
following the rule of the preliminary poisoning. Then and then only the
mistake is recognized and the tricked Spider retires and does not come
back, unless it be long afterwards, when she flings the cumbersome object
out of the web.
There are also clever ones. Like the others, these hasten to the red-
woollen lure, which my straw insidiously keeps moving; they come from
their tent among the leaves as readily as from the centre of the web;
they explore it with their palpi and their legs; but, soon perceiving
that the thing is valueless, they are careful not to spend their silk on
useless bonds. My quivering bait does not deceive them. It is flung out
after a brief inspection.
Still, the clever ones, like the silly ones, run even from a distance,
from their leafy ambush. How do they know? Certainly not by sight.
Before recognizing their mistake, they have to hold the object between
their legs and even to nibble at it a little. They are extremely short-
sighted. At a hand's-breadth's distance, the lifeless prey, unable to
shake the web, remains unperceived. Besides, in many cases, the hunting
takes place in the dense darkness of the night, when sight, even if it
were good, would not avail.
If the eyes are insufficient guides, even close at hand, how will it be
when the prey has to be spied from afar! In that case, an intelligence-
apparatus for long-distance work becomes indispensable. We have no
difficulty in detecting the apparatus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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