[Lestat]

<font color="blue">There is no evolutionary difference between being speckled and being still. Ancestors that didn't freeze under those conditions didn't leave many offspring, just as the ones without camoflage. </font>

Thanks luckyme. I understand that, I just don't think I'm explaining my question properly. One of the things I'm trying to understand is what direction evolution works from. For instance:

Through a random mutation a species of beetle devolops some spots, which it passes to it's offspring. These spots make it harder for a predator to detect, so they become more likely to survive as those without spots start disappearing, because they are now more likely to be the ones eaten. If that's close, then good enough. I have some understanding of how a physical trait is born. We can replace spots with webbed feet, wings, etc. Now let's move on to "freezing".

When the first spider froze at the sight of a predator, it presumably survied because of this. Since this is NOT a random mutation, I don't get how it is first got passed down and evolves. Unlike the the physical characteristic of spots, I don't see how a behavioral characteristic such as freezing is passed down for the firs time. Freezing seems to be a "learned" behavior. I understand how a wildebeast teaches its offspring to freeze at the sight of a lion, and I can even see how this might eventually become hard wired into future generations of wildebeasts. But insects don't possess the intellect to learn from watched behavior of parents (at least I didn't think so).

So exactly how does behavior in insects evolve?

I'm STILL not asking the question the way I want, but hopefully this is close enough.