Page 33 - The Miracle in the Spider

Spiders' Methods of Hunting 33

The Net-Casting Spider: Dinopis
This ogre-faced spider, or Dinopis, to give it its scientific name,
employs a very unusual and surprising hunting technique. Instead of

building a fixed web and waiting for its prey, it builds a web with a few
special features, and casts this over its prey. Then it wraps its prey up in
this web. The trapped insect is doomed. Then, the spider wraps its prey
in new threads, in a "packet," to keep its food fresh for later. 7
It is evident that the spider catches its prey within the framework of
a plan. The planning and subsequent production of a web of the correct
size, shape and strength, etc, which is exactly suited to this hunting
method, and then the wrapping up of the prey, are all activities requiring
superior capacities based on intelligence. Furthermore, an examination of
the spider's web's construction features reveals them to be faultless.
Dinopis' web is a wonder of planning in every sense. Just the

chemical make-up of the silk it uses is a miracle on its own. The technique
the spider employs to use its web is also particularly interesting. While

The web of the Dinopis, unlike that of other spiders, possesses the unique feature of
being thrown over its victim.