Portia Mama with Babies

Mother Portia Spider watching over here babies Taken at night in Singapore.
Closeup of another one

Quote from www.studymode.com/essays/Natio…
The Portia spider trespasses other spiders’ webs, disguising itself by plucking at the threads to imitate the vibrations of a mosquito to sneak up on other spiders. Most spiders behave in two certain ways, building webs to capture prey or hunting away from their webs. The Portia spider does both. Instead of scurrying and jumping like most, these spiders are slow and choppy.

Very odd in appearance, the difference can be easily seen aside from other species. Portia contain 15 species of African, Asian, and Australian spiders. They usually approach other web owners slowly by mimicking a trapped insect on their web using their eight legs, their two palps, or both. The prey is distracted by the signals, and that’s where the Portia comes in for the attack. They also mimic mating rituals of the euryattus spider by rocking on a leaf like a euryattus male would, then that’s when the prey comes out and the Portia strikes. But the euryattus has better sight than most spiders and once they recognize the Portia as an imposter they will charge. The Portia are so smart that they can find a signal for just about any species of spiders and mimic the action to trick its prey. They try different mimics and continue with one that works and distracts best. Sometimes they will try and mimic a male and send the wrong signal and actually distract the female. They also know better to try and attack bigger prey. Stealth is a very smart hiding method for Portia. They use it to pose as debris long enough until the prey is close enough to strike. When a female spider invades a leaf of another that is tending her eggs battle starts. Once it’s over, they usually rip open the defeated enemy’s egg sac to devour the eggs. A lot of these species plan their kills before it happens. They would rather choose owners of webs as their prey instead of insects. They are high in intelligence and are strict to fight for their territory. Their most deadly skills is their mimicry and their strategic attacks...