Ogre-faced Spider
Deinopis sp.
Like many other spiders, Ogre-faced Spiders are nocturnal. However, they have a very peculiar feature that distinguishes them from other spiders: their median eyes are incredibly big. Also, Ogre-faced Spiders build small, square-shaped webs that they hold between their four front legs, and when they see or feel a crawling or flying prey, they propel themselves and the web forward to catch the prey. It’s an amazing behavior! The combination of these incredible big eyes, which allow them to have excellent night vision, and the fact that their web is built with cribellate threads—a special kind of thread that can stretch two or three times its size—makes these spiders professional sit-and-wait hunters. Moreover, added to these features, Ogre-faced Spiders also have a light-sensitive layer inside their big eyes that is renewed every night!
Moreover, they have another interesting characteristic: they take camouflage very seriously! Ogre-faced Spiders are light brown and have elongated bodies, and during the day or when they feel threatened, they extend and tighten their front legs forward and their hind legs back, forming a stick-like shape that can be confused with any other forest twig! You can find Ogre-faced Spiders throughout the tropics of the Australian, African, and American continents.