Spiders Eyes can be seen in spooky reflected light at night

If you walk down your drive in rural Australia using a head torch you start to see things in a different light. Tiny specks of light from spiders eyes are reflected back to your eye from as far as 20 feet away. So lets look closer.
“Continue reading” if you dare.

A spiders eye is a little point of white light from perhaps 10m away.Now perhaps 3m away.
The spider is visible. Can you see it?The spider is facing away and only one of it’s rear facing eyes is visible. Just like one of my old teachers.

Successive enlargement of the little speck of light reflected back from the eye of this nocturnal wolf spider. These are not compound eyes like insects but are better performing cup shaped eyes or ocelli. Some of which have a tapetum lucidum which gives the eyeshine seen with spotlighting.

Generally only one of the eyes is seen but occasionally both show up. The ghostly image above is a photographic capture with a long exposure plus a flash.

Above is an even closer view of the 8 eyes.

Eyeshine does not just occur with spiders. Here is a lacewing that shows up similarly although not as brightly. A nearby Orb spider had no eyeshine regardless of direction. No doubt they rely much less on good eyesight.