Homeless in Vancouver: Spiders caught making light work of their prey

I’m sure you’ve heard the line, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave…”

Spiders will have you believe that it’s not from Shakespeare but rather from an Arachnian epic of undisclosed provenance. And that it is always misquoted.

Supposedly it goes:

If flies get tangled in the webs that spiders weave,
flies must first blame their own inattentiveness,
before accusing spiders of practicing to deceive.

The spiders are right when they say that the line isn’t from Shakespeare but otherwise they’re pulling our collective leg.

The actual quote is from a famous poem called Marmion written in 1808 by Walter Scott, a literary rock star of his day. But I believe Sir Walter was actually Scottish and not spiderish.

Flies shouldn't get any bright ideas it's just coincidence

European garden spiders would deny that there’s anything underhanded or deceptive about the way they will build their webs in front of strong lights when the opportunity presents itself.

The spiders point to their notoriously bad eyesight and say that they need the extra light to properly see what they’re doing.

Other insects, they say, should just watch where they’re flying.

If anything, say the spiders—with an almost detectable smirk—the bright light should actually help make the webs blindingly obvious to flying insects, no?

Honestly, they ask, how is it their fault if flies and moths just happen to have a compulsion about flying toward bright lights?