What is the primary sensory input for fishing spiders during nocturnal hunting activities?

Touch, via specialized trichobothria hairs detecting vibrations across the water film

Although fishing spiders possess eight eyes, the primary sense leveraged during their typical nocturnal hunting strategy is touch. Their legs are equipped with specialized, highly sensitive hairs known as trichobothria. These sensory organs are finely tuned to detect the slightest ripples or vibrations transmitted across the surface film of the water. This sophisticated detection system allows the spider to differentiate the erratic signals indicating struggling prey from natural background disturbances like wind or flowing water, and crucially, enables them to accurately pinpoint the prey's precise location, distance, and direction of movement.