A 2011 video by Wayne Maddison, showing a brazilian amycine salticid visibly moving its eyes, recently went viral. Last year, said video was the inspiration for Cole and me to get some transparent spiderlings, and formally test their eye movements in a controlled lab setting. It involved placing the spiderlings in a bottom-lit glass arena, where they tracked a small target on a motorized drum that formed the arena wall. Here is an early video with just a paintbrush as stimulus, dead drosophila for size (set resolution to 1080p!):
We're still analyzing data, but will present the story later this summer. One of the interesting preliminary results is an asymmetry of how the two principal eyes are tracking targets in contra- and ipsilateral visual hemispheres.
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