Hunting for Hunters by Mary Sutherland.

Hunting for Hunters by Mary Sutherland.    School Journal Part 4 Number 3, 2000 Pages 7-9

WALT: Write down facts about the hunting spiders.

This article is about hunting spiders.

Facts about the hunting spiders.

• Not all spiders catch their food in webs of sticky silk.
• Some hunt for their food, stalking and pouncing on their prey, in much the same way as cat does.
• Six of a hunting spider’s eight eyes work like mirrors.
• Most spiders are active at night.
• If it’s carrying an egg sac or piggy-backing its babies, you’ll know it’s a female spider.
• The ‘mirror’ is right behind their retina.
• Only six of the spider’s eight eyes reflect light back into the retina.
• After dark, when only a little light comes, into the animal’s eye, most gets absorbed by the retina.
• Some nocturnal animals have special ‘mirror’ parts to their eyes.
• Any light missed by the retina, hits the ‘mirror' and gets bounced back into the retina again.