I ran across this video of some beautiful spiders, apparently from Thailand. The third one shown threw me for a second. If it’s not trying to be an ant mimic it is doing a pretty good job of it regardless. Anyway after seeing this I went looking and found a couple more interesting spider vids, check’em out.
Original video missing from YouTube.
Whatever you do, don’t piss it off…
This one is another jumping spider, this time doing a mating dance. Make sure your sound is turned on because you can hear it tapping, thumping and buzzing as it dances.
Original video missing from YouTube.
Playing Chess with Pigeons 
Seriously cool. Hamilton makes the point (I think—can’t find the reference just now) that this kind of dance may evolve in part to prevent some of the bad effects of hybridizing close but not quite exact species. That is, only a member of the exact same species can satisfy the female’s interrogation. It’s also a fitness display, of course. The saluting legs were being used as drumsticks. but almost too fast to see them move.
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Troy, for some reason in my Google reader your posts show up as (No Title), and I can’t click on the blog title to get to the blog itself. Moreover once I get to the blog via a particular post from the reader, the blog title doesn’t link to the top page.
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Hi RBH,
I have no idea why you’d be having that problem and little idea of how to fix it. I am using WordPress’s template and controls, any ideas?
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The jumping spider footage is amazing. However I’m fairly certain that the sounds it makes toward the end of the clip are going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life. I’ve never heard anything like that.
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