Natures wonders: devoted spider dads unusual (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 25, 2016, 20:16 (2918 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: What a great article! Thank you.

David’s comment: Certainly an instinct. How it developed cannot be ascertained from what is observed so far. Certainly my bolded portions show how the writer has anthropomorphized the male spider. Look at the photos.

dhw: Yes, all animals including ourselves have instincts, and nobody knows how they originated. But it's worth remembering that spiders were around long before humans, and dads have been around ever since sex reared its lovely head. What interests me here is not the bolded portions concerning paternity, but the parent’s care for the child. Nothing anthropomorphic about that. And I’ve even got a suspicion all these critters know what they’re doing. They may not know that they know what they're doing, because once you know you know, you start questioning - which may explain why we make such a mess of so many things that ought be done by instinct!

Thank you. I doubt they know what they do or why they are doing it. They just do it.