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Deinopis Spinosa

A species of the Deinopidae family, characterized by long thin (elegant) legs and the use of them to hold and thrust a net towards their prey.

These spiders are visibly remarkable for their forward-facing twin eyes at the front. Hunting at night, the spider is dependent on their eyes identifying prey in low light levels:

Angry looking spider staring down the camera.

Copyright: Jay A Saftstrom (Alamy stock photo), found Daily Mail 18 May, 2016. Fair usage.

I've found the claim online in more than one place that these spiders react so sunlight in a peculiar way:

https://factrepublic.com/facts/16506/

and a very delicate light-sensitive retina. Their eyes have no irises and therefore the sunlight destroys their sensitive retina every single morning only for it to be regrown in the evening.

https://bogleech.com/spiders/spiders10-ogre

the eyes of the ogre-faced faced spider grow a new membrane of similar function every single night...and as the sun rises, the intensity of the light dissolves the membrane back to nothing.

There are reference to spiders (some families) being able to regenerate legs during ecdysis (molting), but on searching further, I'm unable to confirm this for eye-parts from any reputable source, not on Google scholar either.

What is the truth behind any such mechanism for regeneration of a part of the spider's eye daily?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you looking for evidence of veracity or the physiological/biochemical process? (Both are out there.) Oh, and nice question! TIL. $\endgroup$
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jun 30 at 11:26
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    $\begingroup$ Ahh, if I only had the correct search terms (or institutional access). The inconsistency bothered me, one source above states "a membrane like the tapetum lucidum", the other stated that it was the retina which regrew. The former strikes me as more likely, but the whole topic has me going now. I'll take any leads, as much as you have. @anongoodnurse $\endgroup$
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    Commented Jun 30 at 14:34

1 Answer 1

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A. D. Blest seems to be the primary researcher responsible for that wild (truly!) information on Ogre-faced Spider eyes, first publishing this finding in 1978, wherein he described this "metabolically extravagant system":

During the day, receptive segments are short, and rhabdo­mere membrane occupies only a small proportion of their volumes. At nightfall, the segments lengthen, and novel membrane is added in a rapid burst of synthesis almost to fill them. At dawn, the sequence is reversed, and membrane is removed as pinocytotic vesicles which are assembled into multivesicular bodies and lysed in the inter-rhabdomeral cytoplasm and in the swollen receptor axons which underlie the retina. Synthesis and destruction of membrane are shown to be controlled in part by immediate states of retinal illumination, superimposed upon a daily rhythm.

Blest has also done research on the photoreceptors of many other species, reporting frame changing results there as well.

Blest A. D. 1978 The rapid synthesis and destruction of photoreceptor membrane by a dinopid spider: a daily cycle. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 200 463–483 doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1978.0027

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    $\begingroup$ Its truly wild - "Dinopis subrufus, are highly specialized for night vision; their lenses, in particular, have F-numbers of only 0.58." and "f nocturnal vision depends upon filling the receptive segments with membrane, the schedule of behaviour implies that re-synthesis should be both extraordinarily rapid and extremely reliable; the bulk of the process would need to be completed in about 1 h. Here, it is shown that the postulated cycle does, indeed, take place" It does appear to be under control of the spider, not from light degradation, but rather adaption to different light levels. $\endgroup$
    – bob1
    Commented Jun 30 at 21:19
  • $\begingroup$ @JiminyCricket. see other comments. If you want I'm happy to chuck the article onto a google drive and share. The EM in the article is just beautiful! $\endgroup$
    – bob1
    Commented Jun 30 at 21:23
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    $\begingroup$ No worries, just went to the non-pdf page for the article and copied the citation from there. It is absolutely amazing; it would never have occurred to me that something like these mechanisms were possible. To quote J.B.S. Haldane the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. $\endgroup$
    – bob1
    Commented Jun 30 at 23:25
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you so very much for this. I'm still having trouble entirely wrapping my head around the reality of this. It's truly blown my socks off thinking about this and how it evolved. Very much appreciate the answer and support. The key search term "Blest" yields all sorts of interesting stuff to explore. How particular were the professional interests of this man! Fascinating. $\endgroup$
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    Commented Jul 1 at 19:40
  • $\begingroup$ @JiminyCricket. - Agree completely; it's a whole new thing for me too. As bob1's very apt quote states, the universe is queerer than we can even suppose. $\endgroup$
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jul 1 at 21:08

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