Ultimate Spider Hunters
Most people are familiar with the common hunting method of many spiders that is to build a web and wait for unsuspecting prey to stumble into it. However, this is only one method among many that spiders use to catch their dinner. While spiders that build webs tend to use those webs as their means of catching prey, many spiders that do not build webs have devised incredibly ingenious ways of hunting down their food. But, which spiders have developed the most creative hunting strategies that take the idea of finding dinner to a whole new level? How creative can a spider actually get when it comes to catching its dinner? 
There are some spiders out there that have devised some hunting methods so unusual you would be surprised that rather small arachnids could even imagine pulling off stunts like these. One species of these creative hunters are Bolas spiders (Araneidae, Mastophorini). They have developed a hunting method that combines the use of chemical mimicry, in which they are able to mimic pheromones that attract certain prey, and a bolas-style weapon. The “bolas” is made of silk thread, the tip of which is tipped with a droplet of adhesive glue. Like a cowboy from the wild west, these spiders use their bolas like a lasso, swinging the bolas and whipping it at their flying target, with the glue on the tip securing it to the silk. That is pretty hard core for a spider.
Another spider species blessed with this hunting creativity is the orthognath purse-web spider. These spiders create a tube made out of silk that they stick partially underground, while leaving a small portion above ground that they cover in leaves and other debris. The spider waits inside the part of the tube sticking above ground for prey to come crawling on top of it. Once the prey has crossed onto the hidden tube, the spider, which has been waiting this entire time upside-down inside their tube, impales it with its fangs and drags it into the tube with them so it can chomp down. Conveniently, after the spider has eaten its prey, it is able to eject the remaining unwanted parts out through the opening at the top of the tube. Dinner and cleanup combined into one. That is what I call creative.
Do you know of any other strange and creative ways spiders hunt their prey?