This time of year, early autumn in England, I get many spiders coming into my bungalow. I assume they are males looking for mates. This year, one has caught my attention because he is extraordinarily big (about 10cm long). He has been moving around my home for a month or so, travelling from bathroom to kitchen and back again in a circuit, along the same basic route. The only variations seem to be caused by me when I unintentionally put obstacles across his path, which he skirts around before resuming his customary route. This ability to skirt random obstacles is why I think he is not just slavishly following a trail (eg a scent marking or visual signs of his own earlier “footsteps”) but in some way thinking out his route. He rests in a shady corner of the kitchen ceiling most of the day, but breaks his rest to travel to the bathroom several times, returning to the kitchen promptly each time. At night he goes to the bathroom and stays there, returning to the kitchen before dawn. Has anyone else noted this kind of patterned behaviour in spiders? This one has two main webs, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom. Could he have some kind of awareness of his webs, their location, and is he patrolling back and forth to check to see if he has caught dinner? Can spiders “map” their world? Just how intelligent are they?
bedegoat
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