Naturalist Phil Torres describes how he spotted the spider bodyguard while trekking near the Tambopata Research Center in Peru.
"From afar, it appears to be a medium-sized spider about an inch across, possibly dead and dried out, hanging in the centre of a spider web along the side of the trail," he says. "Step in even closer and things start to get weird - that spider form you were looking at is actually made up of tiny bits of leaf, debris and dead insects."
Upon closer examination, Torres spotted a tiny, 5-millimetre spider hiding behind its doppelganger.
Cyclosa mulmeinensis is already known to build decoy objects on its web, but these tend to look like blob-like prey pellets and egg sacs. The newly described decoys look more like a spider, complete with eight dangly legs.
To build their body doubles, the spiders gather leaf fragments, plant parts, prey remains, egg sacs and other handy detritus. Then they arrange the debris along specialised silk strands called stabilimenta to create the shape and legs.
The results of such decoys are counter-intuitive - surely it's like covering yourself in a giant fake steak before parading in front of the local lion pride? But although such decoys tend to attract predators to webs by making them more conspicuous, they may draw away enough attacks from the spider itself to make them worthwhile.
Torres says that some Cyclosaspecies have a higher survival rate against potential predators, such as paper wasps, because the wasps attack the highly visible debris in the web rather than the spider itself.
Torres hopes to collaborate with spider specialists to determine if the arachnid's unique behaviour could indicate the discovery of a new species of Cyclosa.
NewScientist
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