Say hello to the net-casting spiders (family Deinopidae)—commonly known as or ogre-faced spiders—and arguably some of the most fascinating nocturnal arachnids on the planet. Forget waiting around for bugs to wander into a static web; these guys actively hunt with a hand-held silk net that they manually fling over their targets. To pull this off in the dark, they sport massive posterior median eyes that are roughly 2,000 times more sensitive to light than human eyes, giving them night vision that puts cats and owls to shame. But this extreme sensitivity comes with a bizarre catch: the morning sun would completely blind them. To survive the day, they literally dissolve and digest the light-sensitive membranes in their retinas every single morning, only to completely rebuild them once the sun sets! Because they lack external ears, they use specialized sensory organs on their legs to “hear” the acoustic vibrations of flying or crawling insects from up to two meters away. I crossed paths with one of these eerie characters during a daytime stroll through the city park of Puyo, Ecuador, when I spotted an odd-looking “branch” hanging from a tree. During the day, they remain completely motionless, stretching their long, thin bodies flat against twigs or palm fronds to blend seamlessly into the background.
