The Twinkle Spider Effect

We went for a night walk at the Jungle School near Tikal where we’re staying. Wearing a headlamp, I saw twinkles all over the ground, especially in the planters and bushes and grasses.

On close inspection they were spiders, reflecting the headlamp light. It couldn’t be seen if the lamp wasn’t on my head… something to do with the angle of reflection. Little, big, all sizes were reflecting. After a bit of research it looks like they are probably Wolf spiders and their eyes are reflecting as we walk by.

It was actually quite pretty and interesting until we got to a path leading into the jungle, and then the sheer quantity of twinkles made me feel like I was in a Harry Potter movie leading me to the den of the giant blood sucking spider. We turned around.