Tiny tropical spiders in the Philippines and the Peruvian Amazon build giant, arachnid-like decoys in their webs to scare off predators, new research shows.
The outsize fake spiders are made of silk; plant debris; and dead, disembodied prey. Some decoys look rudimentary, but others accurately imitate the shape of a spider, according to a study published Nov. 6 in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
