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Ammon News - New research suggests that a fear of spiders is not just for humans but spiders themselves demonstrate signs of suffering from arachnophobia.

A lot of people are scared of spiders but those who suffer from arachnophobia can take solace in knowing that even spiders are afraid of themselves.

Researchers have revealed spiders have shown signs of phobia when in the presence of another larger and possibly predatory spider.

The research was carried out by Dr Daniela Roessler in a study called: "Arachno-Arachnophobia."

Scientists carried out tests on jumping spiders being able to recognise a static predator.

Footage was taken of the spider’s behaviour as it was put next to various objects, including a much larger fake spider that was 3D-printed.

During the experiment, the jumping spider, known as a salticid, was nervous in front of the larger objects and would back away like most human arachnophobes.

According to the study: "Our experiments show that salticids demonstrate a robust, fast, and repeatable 'freeze and retreat' behaviour when presented with stationary predators, but not similarly sized non-predator objects.

"Anti-predator responses were triggered by co-occurring and non-co-occurring salticid predators, as well as by 3D-printed salticid models (based on micro-CT scans), suggesting a generalized predator detection/classification."

The jumping spider is a very good predator itself with its excellent vision helping it eat prey.

However, even jumping spiders eat each other with bigger and more dominant ones eating the smaller of the species.


The study shows how good the vision of the jumping spider is and how it thinks about the physical appearance of what is in front of it.

It highlights how jumping spiders can recognise other spiders and how they look to avoid them.

"To address the role of learning and memory, we tested newly emerged spiderlings and found the same behavioural responses towards predator objects suggesting an innate response," the study continued.

"The ability of jumping spiders to innately recognize a non-moving threat is surprising in terms of underlying cognitive processes and the evolution thereof."

*dailystar