A net-casting spider hunts with a purpose-built tool. It spins a small rectangular sheet of stretchy cribellate silk, holds it open between the front two pairs of legs, and hangs head-down over a patch of ground. When an insect walks beneath, the spider drops and stretches the net over it.
A second strike goes the other way. Researchers recording neural and behavioural responses in Deinopis in 2021 found that the spiders respond to low-frequency airborne sound detected through mechanoreceptors on the legs, and swing backwards to net flying insects passing behind them. Airborne hearing at this range had not been expected in an animal with no ears.
The eyes are as unusual as the method. The posterior median eyes are among the largest of any spider and gather so much light that the sensitive membrane is built afresh each evening and dismantled at dawn to avoid damage.