From Mindy Weisberger at LiveScience:
And scientists recently discovered a spider that uses a unique masquerade to hide in plain sight. It is the only known spider to have a body that bears an uncanny resemblance to a dangling, partly dried-up leaf.
The species is not yet named. Apparently, mimicry is much more common in insects than in arachnids like spiders, of which only about 100 species are mimics. This is the only known leaf-haped one.
Leaves close by the female spider on the branch were attached with silk, which hinted that she had placed them there deliberately to further camouflage herself. However, additional observations would be necessary to confirm this behavior, Kuntner told Live Science. More.
Well, maybe spiders don’t think but something in them thinks.
But you haven’t seen anything until you see the monkey face orchids. Obviously, Darwinian hit and miss methods would not produce the many elaborate mimics we see within the available time period. The need to pretend otherwise becomes a barrier to discovering the facts.
See also: Rare orchids featuring pictures and figures
and
Does intelligence depend on a specific type of brain?
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