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Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

nytimes.com

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Re: Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

#31

Post by ImHereToVote »

latexr wrote: post #14
chongli wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a spider is doing anything, there’s a safe bet that it’s been doing that thing for thousands or millions of years. Spiders are extremely successful and they’ve occupied countless niches as they’ve been around for 380 million years.

It was a joke. I don’t really believe (nor did I expect anyone to think that) spiders have been observing humans watching adverts on TV, following them around to understand the socio-economic ramifications of that, then hatching a plan to catch other insects based on observations.

Please don't upset the spergs. Just say. "Oh yeah, I didn't think of that". We need them to stay here to solve our SQL queries.

Re: Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

#32

Post by [deleted] »

jvanderbot wrote: post #3

I always found these types of things particularly creepy. Scaled up to human level, imagine a creature that trolls around luring you with visually-convincing mates only to eat you. Bram Stoker's Dracula had a particularly good bodyhorror version of this in the multi-bodied "Woman".

[deleted]

Re: Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

#33

Post by xr4y »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #29
nicwolff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sequel to Children of Time by the (great!) Adrian Tchaikovsky – middle book of a trilogy.

OP has it confused. They lay out the plot to Children of Time which is the first book but call it Children of Ruin. Ruin was the second book that focuses on something else (no spoilers). Time focuses on the spiders.

I don't know why Children of Ruin came to my mind instead of Children of Time, but I agreed that the first book is more focused in the spiders. I was told that there is already a third book that end that serie, Children of Memory, gotta read this one! ...

Re: Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

#34

Post by xr4y »

optimalsolver wrote: post #20
xr4y wrote: post #16

This reminds me of this sci-fi book called Children of Ruin where in a terraformed world, a genetics experiment goes wrong and the whole place is now overrun with super-intelligent giant spiders, who were infected with the uplift virus and have built their own civilization in the meantime — and who are protected from orbit by the immortal computer intelligence of Avrana Kern, who has determined in the intervening cen…

You might be interested in this Reddit post: Imagining the psychology of aliens evolved from ambush predators https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/16a9m2h/ima...

Enjoyed this post! ... thanks! ...

Re: Spider Uses a Light Show to Trick Eager Male Fireflies into Its Web

#36

Post by xp84 »

limit499karma wrote: post #21
aflukasz wrote: post #18

I love spiders! Just kidding. I block them by putting a transparent cup over them, slide an open book cover beneath where they stand, so that they must enter on top of it, close the book, and off we go - I, the book, the cup that I press with all my force, and the spider trapped inside - to the nearest opening in the building, wishing them the very best on their new way of life, outside, and for me to live and thrive…

Any semi-stiff plane would do, the thinner the better so as not accidentally injure the little critter's legs and what-not. These days keep an unpeeled decal that has just the right thinness/stiffness properties.

I feel like you guys need to discover the purpose-built tool for this: https://a.co/d/ixJoPRE

We keep these under every sink because they tend to appear in tubs for us. Only problem is spiders that run fast, it’s hard to capture them without injuring them.

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