The spider with NIGHTVISION goggles: Arachnid uses its enlarged eyes to help it hunt prey on the ground at night
- Deinopis spinosa spiders possess the largest eyes of all arachnids
- The eyes enable them to be good at hunting prey on the ground at night
- Prey on the ground is higher in nutrients and not avaiable to other spiders
- Hunting at night also helps protect the spiders from predators themselves
Most spiders have a cluster of eight eyes that help them target and capture their prey.
But staring out like two huge black holes, two of the ogre-faced spider's eyes have become abnormally enlarged.
Now a new study has revealed these huge peepers allow the spider, also known as Deinopis spinosa, or net-casting spider, to hunt for prey at night.
Scroll down for video
The Deinopis spinosa (pictured) spider has the largest eyes of all known arachnids. Its prevailing posterior median eyes are just two of eight eyes, but allow it to pinpoint prey on the ground in the dark, according to new research
The Deinopis spinosa spider has the largest eyes of all known arachnids.
While at a glance they appear to have just two eyes, they actually have eight eyes like other species, but the large posterior median eyes are extremely enlarged.
Researchers has long suspected the creatures may have used these to give them an edge during the hours of darkness, but a link has never been proved.
Now a news study by the University of Nebraska Lincoln has found that these massive eyes allow the spider to hunt its prey on the ground at night.
The Deinopis spinosa, also known as the ogre-faced spider, has invested a lot into its ability to prey in low-level light over the course of its evolution
Other spiders tend to hunt in the air, casting nets to capture flying prey. But in the ogre-faced spider - so called due to its ugly features - it strikes its insect prey from the front.
The spiders' extraordinary vision system helps it do this.
As prey that live on the ground, such as crickets, tends to be bigger, it tends to also be of higher nutritional value to the spider.
This sort of prey is normally out of reach for most web-building spiders.
The researchers also concluded that the nocturnal spider's enlarged eyes allow them to remain active solely at night, avoiding numerous predators in the day.
Predators that inhabit the spider's surroundings during the day include song birds, parasitoid wasps and jumping spiders.
The researchers think the risk of being eaten or parasitised by predators in the day has played a huge role in their evolution.
The spiders were tested the spiders by conducting both field and laboratory foraging trials.
Writing in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters, Jay Stafstrom, a biologist at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and his colleagues who conducted the research, said: 'We have shown that a nocturnal predator heavily invested in low-light level vision through extreme sensory structures receives significant benefits from these specializations in the form of more and potentially higher quality prey.'
The ogre-faced spider was found to primarily strike its prey using a forward strike, using its enlarged eyes to help it locate and pinpoint insects on the ground
- Moment heroic off-duty nurse battles to save builder's life
- Hilarious moment man takes to waterslide for an epic...
- Cop cradles toddler abandoned by MOM after hit and run
- Megyn quizzes Shapiro on OJ: How do you live with yourself?
- Shocking moment prostitutes forced to walk naked on street
- Anger on the streets as shortages of food grips Venezuela
- Zoo keeper dies after 236-stone walrus drags him underwater
- 'I got the moves like Jagger': Kid can't help dancing in...
- Bible-wielding mom opposes Target transgender bathroom...
- Bouncer shuts up club-goer in knockout punch outside club
- New Hampshire weather observer appears to fly in 100MPH...
- Cannes favorite tells the story of Richard and Mildred...
- No electricity, no antibiotics, no beds, no soap: A...
- Did OJ have an accomplice? Robert Shapiro finally reveals...
- EgyptAir jet went into a 'sharp spin' and fell 22,000ft...
- Black Panther, Marvel's African hero, in the spotlight
- 'You were all trying to kill her, and she's still alive':...
- 'Forever in our hearts': Woman who publicly mourned her...
- 'Crazed Broadway stagehand who worked on Mary Poppins' shot...
- EXCLUSIVE: The REAL reason Tyga split from Kylie Jenner -...
- Trump links Bill Clinton to rape during extraordinary Fox...
- Megyn Kelly is barely recognizable on upcoming memoir cover...
- Dramatic moment Russian jets are intercepted in NATO...
- The story you're not allowed to read: Article printed by...