--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Later, I saw one on > > a flower stem, and the thing actually played > > peek-a-boo with me the way a child does, hiding and > > then coming out to take a shy look and then hiding > > again. > > Like a child who is afraid that a monstrously huge creature will eat > him! The cute peek-a-boo of terror mixed with the pugnaciousnesses of > a predator. Probably going back and forth between, "i think I can > take this creature and eat it" to "holy shit is that thing big! > Feet's don't fail me now. Seriously, all of eight of them!) > > > Here is some interesting info on their sight: > http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/InfoNed/sensoryleg.html > > The eyes of spider differ greatly between families. Spiders who hunt > without a web like wolf spiders (Lycosidae), lynx spiders (Oxyopidae) > and jumping spiders (Salticidae) have a well-developed eyesight. > Jumping spiders can see nearly as well as humans. Experiments have > shown that they are even capable of seeing colors. Cave spiders, which > live in the dark, have no or hardly any eyesight. They depend > completely on sound and feeling. > The structure of the eye is in basic similar to our eye; behind a > single cuticular lens lays a cellular vitreous body and the visual > cells. Together with pigment cell this forms the retina. >
The pet tarantulas I had as a boy were nocturnal and virtually blind, though they could see shadows all round. In the wild they would dig their first burrow and never go more than a foot away from it. In my house they were in a fish tank so they didn't have much choice in that. Fascinating creatures, they almost seemed to think about things. Against the guide books advice I put gravel in their tanks instead of earth because I thought it looked better (I know it's not good but I was young) obviously you can't dig a good burrow in gravel as the sides fall in. So it just stood there for a few days and then spun a bit of web over a patch of gravel picked it up and spun a bit of web on the gravel under it, and gradually built a web lined tunnel to live in. I was amazed, it really looked like it thought about it but it was probably a memory that took a while to access. But then it often escaped, once I was asleep and I heard this knocking noise coming from its tank. It had spun web over both the tank glass and the lid and had 4 legs on each, the knocking noise was it lifting the lid! Don't underestimate the strength of these guys. So it was obviously a bit smart. They look cool the way they sit still for days on end, munching the odd cricket. And they could go without food and water for a year, the perfect pet. Not quite as affectionate as my dog though.
