The Promise Of A False Reward

Portia spiders are actually able to manipulate the webs of their prey to mimic the vibrations of trapped food or a hopeful suitor. The unsuspecting spider heads toward what it thinks is a tasty meal or a likely mate, only to be ambushed and eaten by the portia. Still more extraordinary is the fact that different types of spiders feel for different types of vibrations, and the portia will change how it manipulates a web depending on what it is hunting. The vibrations that attract one type of spider will have no effect on another, and the portia adjusts accordingly. Sometimes, the portia will employ trial and error to hit upon a deceptive vibration that attracts its prey, even spending days patiently testing false cues until something works. A predator uses the promise of a false reward to manipulate its prey into a compromised position. It’s hard not to think of Giddings and the lottery scheme that ensnared her. While the portia spider might appear to be using reason and knowledge of its prey to draw conclusions about how to attack it, this is only an appearance. Their behavior is a function of instinct, formed by way of evolution over thousands and thousands of generations. Only humans can think up ways to trick and attack a meal or a mark. Our capacity to devise and enact noninstinctive plans is one thing that sets us apart from other animals. Still, even if the cognitive process behind the deception of a portia spider and that of a human con man is different, the behavior itself remains remarkably similar.

Worlds Apart

As skilled at deception as humans are, we do not hold a monopoly on the behavior. The portia spider plucking out false signals on its prey’s web is just one example of the falsehoods and manipulations that occur across the natural world. As we will see, nonhuman deception can be almost as varied and complex as the kind practiced by humans. The ubiquity of deception in nature presents an intriguing possibility as we investigate the lying in our lives. We often think of the practice of deception as a kind of falling away from the natural order of things. In other words, perhaps deception is something humans are born to do. All the animal and plant life on earth had been created in that week, and it existed in the same form then as in modern times. Creation was more or less static, and was ordered in a hierarchy with human beings at the top. So it’s hard to overstate the importance of Darwin’s theories to the way we view ourselves, the world around us, and how it all came to be. The static model was replaced by a model of constant adaptation and change. Instead of humanity being above nature, we were thrust into the thick of it, an animal as much as any other. Darwin’s theories suggest that anything that gives an individual creature an advantage in surviving its environment or in finding a mate can be selected for and passed on.

After The Fall

In hummingbirds, larger beak size provides an advantage in survival, as it increases the kinds of flowers from which the birds can draw nectar. All this brings us back to lying. We usually think of Darwinian adaptations as things like wing color and beak size. But in a range of contexts, deception has proven an advantageous trait for survival and procreation. To put it simply, nature has selected deceit, and we see it in a vast array of plants, insects, and animals. The forms of this deception are also highly varied, being played out as adaptations to the range of environments in which living things struggle to pass on their genes. In its crudest forms, natural deception can be entirely passive. It’s not hard to see the advantages it gives a creature to be able to blend in with its surroundings. If a predator can’t find you, it can’t eat you. Zebras have stripes to make it difficult for a predator to differentiate between the individuals in a herd. In other cases, creatures are camouflaged to look like different creatures. Animal impersonation can even occur across species.

When The Lights Go Out

Young bushveld lizards are black, in order to mimic the toxic oogpister beetle. The mirror orchid has a flower that looks like a female wasp. It augments this deceptive lure with the release of a scent similar to a female wasp’s pheromones. In this way, the mirror orchid attracts male wasps looking to mate, allowing the flower to spread its pollen despite the fact that it contains no nectar. Deception carried out by way of appearance is only the simplest form of natural trickery, though. Many animals are capable of acting deceptively, too. A huge variety of creatures employ the tactic of playing dead when threatened. Opossums are so notorious for their imitations of a dead or sickly animal that their name has become synonymous with the strategy. But the prize for the most dramatic imitation of death should probably go to the hognose snake. In playing dead, a hognose will roll over onto its back, excrete fecal matter and a disgusting odor, and let its tongue hang limp as drops of blood fall from its mouth. The behaviors animals can fake go beyond imitations of death. The methods animals use for communication can also be the methods they use to deceive one another. This implies a capacity for intention and behavioral insight that all but a few species lack this. But the signals they send to one another do not always communicate what the recipient understands them to, and this misunderstanding frequently benefits the sender. For example, fireflies use their luminescence in order to seek out a mate. Male fireflies signal their presence to prospective partners by illuminating near an area where a female might be found. At least, that is how it usually works. In some firefly species, a female signals a willingness to mate, but only as a hunting tactic.