Spider builds life-sized decoys

Summary

July 6, 2009: A type of spider living in Taiwan builds life-sized decoys of itself out of detritus, plant parts, prey remains, or egg sacs to confuse attackers.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• Various fictional creatures in your campaign could do this as well - though it would require special situations to fool observant humans.
  • Perhaps the nature of the creature is so that human attackers cannot or do not want to get close to it. If they have to attack it with ranged weapons, they will be easier to fool.
    • Perhaps it lives in cliff sides, or within cave complexes which prevent humans from getting close.
    • Perhaps it is extremely vicious in close combat, or emits poisonous gases.
    • Ideally, the combat should be staged in twilight or darkness, which will confuse the senses of humans further.
  • The purpose of such decoys would be to either fool the humans that they had killed it and leave it alone when they actually didn't, or distract them so that it can sneak up on them from another direction and attack them by surprise.
• Humans might use similar tactics against powerful but dumb monsters.
  • They might even go so far and build fake villages for the monster to destroy instead of the real one.
    • This fake village might also be covered by traps.
• Consider some fantastical sapient spiders, for whom these constructs serve as a fetch, fetish or even an idol.
• If the spider's young are particularly carnivorous and aggressive, one of these constructs loaded with an egg sack could convert a potential predator into a first meal.
• Alternatively, if the spider species is a high tier predator in its ecosystem, it may be able to leave a construct to "guard" its lair whilst it goes foraging, to deter anything seeking to eat its young or its stored food.