Dol Guldur, if spiders are involved.
OK,
After sending this to lots of colleagues (many of whom actually received this from multiple sources), the consensus seems to be…
…possibly the egg sac of some kind of cribellate spider. These spiders have a unique type of silk spinning apparatus that allow them to create the kind of silk strands shown in some of the closeup photos. And some do make elaborate protected or stalked egg sacs.
So we in the entomological community still don’t know for certain, but this seems (at the moment) the most likely bet. Hopefully the scientist who found it will try to see what comes out of it.
Yeah, if you took the outer “fence” structure and laid it flat pointing inwards, you’d have a basic orb weaver pattern.
I won’t be satisfied until I see a high quality vid of one of these being constructed.
Thank you, mozchron. That’s a fascinating article, the close-up was amazing, and in the NatGeo article linked within it, they say that an entomologist will be traveling to the Amazon this winter to see if they can identify the maker of this structure!
Woot!
I sure hope somebody waits around to see what comes out.
That article is fascinating. I learned a lot from it. Thanks for the link.
Crowdsourced science For The Win! 
Spider eggs with ballooning tower and ant barrier has got to be the right answer. Can’t wait for a hatching update.
This mystery is apparently (about to be) solved. iO9 reports today the researchers have posted an update and promise a resolution.
This was followed by a screen cap of a tweet stating “Today we found 11 of these wild structures, and are about to solve this Amazon mystery”. Torres also shared a photo on Facebook, stating “The mystery we’re solving by the hour- will update soon.”
I’m impatient to find out!
I, for one, welcome our insectivore overlords.
I think the notion that it’s both protection for spider eggs and a trap for the first meal for the young spiders. It’s almost like mother spider left a note: “hey kids, I left some lunch on the fence”.
Sandkings.
Thank you, Just Ed! I’m excited that we’ll be finding out, soon.
i guarantee you that if you poke it, thousands of absolutely horrifying baby monsters will come pouring out of it and you’ll wake up from nightmares covered in ticks every day for the rest of your life.
Crop Circles was my first thought as well.
But upon further inspection, it’s just way too intricate (and tiny) to be man-made.
The fact that they are finding all these in a relatively small area, makes me think it’s an adaptation of some local species (spider?).
I can’t wait for the mystery to be solved. Fascinating!
…drumming fingers…
Somewhere in the Peruvian rain forest, a guy with a laptop and a battery powered 3-D printer is laughing his ass off.
How hard can it be to solve the mystery? I’m starting to think about crop circles and laughing farmers with too much time on their hands.
So freaking exciting!!
Shouldn’t this go back to GQ?
In how big of an area are they finding these things?