The Michelangelo of Arachnids

Newly discovered spider sculpts gigantic doppelganger 

By Mary Rose Thomas-Glaser

Imagine building a realistic replica of yourself over four times your size without tools or equipment. Could you do it? Seems impossible, yet a newly discovered spider in the Peruvian Amazon has mastered this remarkable task.

Detrius Decoy

During an exploration in the Peruvian rainforest, a team led by entomologist Phil Torres stumbled upon a web about the size of an outstretched hand with what appeared to be a dead, fungus-covered spider. On closer inspection, however, the team realized the one-inch arachnid was nothing but a decoy constructed from leaves, forest debris and dead insects. The real spider, only five millimeters in size, sat behind the “corpse.”

With amazing anatomical precision, the tiny spider had created a supersized self replica complete with a head, thorax and eight legs. While hiding behind the decoy, the spider vibrated the entire web to animate the decoy and create an illusion of a larger, more threatening arachnid to distract prey, ward off potential predators or perhaps both.

A New Species?

Did team Torres discover a new species? Well, they aren’t quite sure yet. The team shared their findings with arachnologist Linda Rayor at Cornell University who confirmed that the spider was indeed unusual. “The odds are that this [species] is unidentified,” she said, “and even if it has been named, that this behavior hasn’t previously been reported.”

The genus of Cyclosa includes the Trashline Orb Weaver spider, which gathers debris to create decoys in the web. Their clumpy replicas, however, lack the anatomical detail seen in the Peruvian spiders. But unique behavior alone is not indicative of a new species. More information is needed, and Torres and his team plan to return to the Amazon site to collect spiders.

An average of three new species is discovered daily in the Amazon rainforest! Stay tuned to learn if this Peruvian spider will be added to the Amazon’s treasure trove of biodiversity.