Ogre-faced spiders have great hearing—without ears

These big-eyed arachnids use organs in their legs to hear a surprisingly diverse range of sounds, an ability not seen in other spiders.

Whoever named the ogre-faced spider was clearly impressed with its gargantuan eyes, monster-like orbs that spot prey in the dark.

As it turns out, this nocturnal arachnid is notable for another sense entirely: Hearing. A new study says the spider can hear a surprising range of sounds from more than six feet away, thanks to sensory organs—on its legs.

Native to the U.S. Southeast, ogre-faced spiders hunt by dangling from vegetation and then flipping backward to capture airborne prey in a sticky net.

Curious about how the spiders can accomplish such a nimble feat, Jay Stafstrom, a postdoctoral researcher in neurobiology at Cornell University, previously ran an experiment in which he covered the spiders’ eyes with a piece of silicone. Intriguingly,

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