Page 31 - The Miracle in the Spider

Spiders' Methods of Hunting 31

As well as being the
same shade of colour
as the flowers they
wait on, some
spiders even have
the same patterns
(side).
The spider (bottom
right) exactly
matches the sand it
walks on. One has to
look very carefully to
distinguish the
spider from its
background.

The Caerostis spider hunts at night. (left) At dawn it dismantles its web and waits
for night again. The twig, which it resembles, and which it sits on all day,
camouflages it.

prey. The spider can disguise itself so cunningly in the flower that
sometimes a butterfly or a bee will land right on top of it without realising
it.
Did the spider decide to be able to take on these colours by itself, by
any chance? Did it study flowers and copy the same tones and shades in
itself? It is clear that the spider would not have had the ability to do that.
Apart from a few nerve centres, it does not even possess a brain capable