Is it their eight creepy-crawly legs or their eight beady
eyes that make spiders a spooky Halloween staple? Either way, new research
suggests all those extra pairs of spider peepers have their own roles to play
in keeping the arachnids safe.
Jumping spiders, a group of spiders that
actively hunts its prey rather than trapping it in webs, have four pairs of
eyes (as do most spiders). A new study finds that while the center, or
principal, pair of eyes is good at picking out details, one of the side pairs
is crucial for warning spiders when something is coming their way.
This "looming response" is the equivalent of a
human ducking and covering when a baseball flies toward his or her face. But
humans rely on just one pair of eyes to both avoid the baseball and see the
details of its stitching. Jumping spiders use four eyes for the same tasks.
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