A Spider Gone Ballistic

Okay, this one is just for grins. And because the diversity and ingenuity of nature is so inspiring.

When I was in the Peruvian Amazon a number of years ago, we took a nighttime walk along a forest path through the jungle. Why? Cuz some species only come out at night. Of the creatures we observed in the glow of our headlamps, the most fascinating and ingenious to me was a net-throwing spider. This small predator weaves a rectangular web that it then grasps with its legs while it waits. When a prey item comes within range, the spider throws its capture net. Gotcha!

Another variant on catching prey in creative ways comes to us from a species of spider just discovered in 2022 in a remote Australian rainforest. This huntsman -- also nocturnal, which partly explains why it was only recently discovered -- doesn't throw its web at prey, but throws its prey into its more traditional web. Called by its discovers the ballista spider, it constructs an elaborate trap with strands of silk under high tension that are attached at a central point beneath its web. To set the trap, the spider baits it with pheromones -- scientists suspect -- that are irresistable to green tree ants. As an ant chews the bait it weakens the attachments, unleashing what amounts to a catapult that flings the ant at speeds reaching 14.4 feet per second into the spider's web. Dinner time!

The whole setup is quite elaborate and may take a spider up to 4 hours to construct. Why does it go to all this trouble? This summary from Smithsonian magazine explains. You'll want to open the link to watch the one-minute video of this crafty hunter in action.