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Spiders Hijack Fireflies to Create Devious Glowing Death Traps

Fireflies glow to attract mates. As new research shows, however, a certain species of spider has learned to take advantage of this luminous natural phenomenon. In a Journal of Animal Ecology paper published August 27, ecologists report that the sheetweb spider (Psechrus clavis) appears to exploit firefly luminescence to attract more prey. Observational analysis and lab experiments revealed that, by using firefly light as bait, the nocturnal predators improved their hunting success. This is the

We Might Have Been Wrong About Where Spiders Came From

Technically speaking, every living thing on Earth can trace its origins to the sea. Some of these earliest creatures crawled onto land, evolving to become many different kinds of animals and insects—including, scientists believed for a long time, spiders and their relatives. A new study published today in Current Biology challenges the popular conception that spiders first emerged on land, instead suggesting that these arachnids and their relatives originated and evolved in the ocean. The team

First methane-powered sea spiders found crawling on the ocean floor

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — Heat-trapping methane may be best known for the dangers it poses to humans and Earth’s atmosphere, but in the dark depths of the ocean, the greenhouse gas is a nourishing meal for some of the world’s most mysterious creatures, new research suggests. Scientists say they have discovered three previously unknown, unnamed species of sea spider off