@jawramik i thought you might be interested in this article about our favorite arachnids (well at least my favorite) they are seen to have incredibly good memories, which also shows a level of intelligence. Even without a scientific study i knew these gals and guys had a level of intelligence from my own observations of keeping these amazing arachnids.
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Very cool, thanks for sharing! I’m not really surprised to learn that they have good memories that inform deliberate decisions, but it’s cool to see it backed up by something more scientific than my own observations of a single individual. Spiders in general have always seemed like pretty smart little critters to me, especially when you take into account that most species have very poor eyesight. They perceive the world very differently from the way we do, but that doesn’t mean they’re not smart!
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Im sure from your own observations of Delilah, you’ve seen just how amazing these ladies are. Its one reason i love arachnids so much. They are so underrated and definitely deserve more appreciation than they get. Its too bad we have a tendency to think that we are the only intelligent inhabitants of our planet.
I enjoy learning about animals especially aracnids. Some of these articles i come across are by accident/fate? But i love that others have an interest in inverts with scientific research to back it up.
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When I had my red-knee tarantula as a kid, there was one time I was showing her off to a friend and tossed in a cricket so my friend could see her eat. For a few minutes, the cricket just sat motionless right in front of Harriet (the tarantula), and Harriet didn’t react. My friend commented that Harriet clearly wasn’t very smart, since she couldn’t find food when it was right in front of her. I had to explain that her apparent inability to find the cricket was due to her lack of eyesight, not a lack of intelligence, and that the cricket had to move so Harriet could feel where it was, since tarantulas have poor eyesight but are extremely sensitive to vibrations and movement. And sure enough, as soon as the cricket twitched, Harriet pounced on it in the blink of an eye. I pointed out to my friend that neither of us would be able to catch an animal half our own body size that quickly if we were blindfolded, and my friend was forced to apologize to Harriet for calling her stupid. 
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