News Animals

Some cannibal pirate spiders trick their cousins into ‘walking the plank’

A Costa Rican arachnid uses a hunting strategy that exploits the way other spiders build webs

A photo of a Gelanor siquirres spider on a black background.

The spider Gelanor siquirres (shown) has a seemingly unique way of hunting other arachnids, tricking them into walking right into a trap.

G. Barrantes, L. Segura-Hernández and D. Solano-Brenes/Animal Behaviour 2023

By Elizabeth Anne Brown

- More than 2 years ago

A Costa Rican pirate spider lives up to the family name: It tricks closely related orb weaver spiders into “walking the plank,” right to their doom.