How fast does the spider cast its web? And how does it know that prey is nearby?
An unusual hunting technique
Each species has its own hunting technique. And these are so varied and astonishing that some of them are enough for their general qualification. This is the case for the slingshot spider, (Theridiosoma gemmosum), who suffers from her nickname following the means she uses to sustain herself.
Indeed, as relayed in a peer-reviewed press release published on December 4, 2024 on EurekAlert, these spiders “pull the center of their flat web backwards, to form a cone with the spider at the tip” then release the thread to catapult the sticky web onto its prey.
Capturing small spiders
However, one question remains: how do these spiders know when to cast their net? Indeed, in 2021, Saad Bahmla (Georgia Institute of Technology, United States) and his colleagues, including Todd Blackledge (University of Akron, United States), realized that all they had to do was snap their fingers to let the spider begin to cast its net. Is the latter therefore only guided by its hearing?
In any case, this is what scientists publish in a scientific journal. For them, the spider is able to hear approaching insects, then stretch the net and throw it when it is within their reach. To carry out their experiment, they were forced to capture tiny slingshot spiders as well as mosquitoes.
Intercept a mosquito in 38 ms
Through their observations, Sarah Han, also from the University of Akron, and Todd Blackledge came to the conclusion that the spider knew how far away the insect was thanks to the vibrations felt by its hairy legs on the web. It remains to be seen how quickly the spider casts its web.
Considering the layout established by Sarah Han, the web reaches speeds of nearly 1 m/s to intercept a mosquito in 38 ms, i.e. “too fast for the insect to escape”! The frequency of insect reactions is also not the same depending on whether the spider's prey is in front of or behind the web.
Source: Journal of Experimental Biology
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