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Published online 30 September 1999 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news990930-8
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How spiders see the light
It may look pretty dull, but on closer inspection the Blackwall spider (Drassodes cupreus), a grey-brown northern European arachnid, sports some hefty high-tech headgear that glints blue in the right kind of light. This is its integral compass: a pair of secondary eyes, specifically to analyse the polarization of light from the sky.
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