Cellar Spider Description - Jesus Mallol Diaz
Regarding the cephalothorax of this specimen, it seems to have two dark spots located on the top as well, which may be another set of eyes, and due to the nature of this spider they might be used simply for light detection and thus be less developed than its other sets of eyes. When we think about eyes, we tend to think about our own and asume that the rest of animals view the world in a very similar way as us. Nonetheless, there are many different kinds of eyes in nature, some more developed and complex than human eyes, others more simple and primitive. Since this specimen seems to be a cellar spider, we can asume that its habitat is mostly dark and moist, and in such environment possesing fully developed eyes capable of distinguishing shapes, features, and colors, may not be useful and actually have a great energy investment that does not compensate. Instead, maybe this species relies on other senses such as chemoreception or mechanoreception, and while some of its sets of eyes may actually have a tapetum or similar structure that allows them to see in the dark, the most probable role of the set of eyes located on top of the cephalothorax may be just perceiving subtle changes in light intensity, so that the spider has a way of telling if it is exposed to the open where it could be easily predated, or if it is instead inside a dark environment like a cellar where it has an advantage over its prey.
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