This spider has a neat trick. It builds a typical orb web, but then it gets behind it and draws it back, like a slingshot…and when it hears a bug buzzing by, it releases it to spring forward and entangle it’s prey.
A) Untensed web shown from front view. (B) Tensed web shown from side view.
It can hear mosquitos and are triggered when on buzzes within range.
As for the web kinematics, Han and Blackledge determined that they can accelerate up to 504 m/s2, reaching speeds as high as 1 m/s, and hence can catch mosquitos in 38 milliseconds or less. Even the speediest mosquitoes might struggle to outrun that.
I haven’t seen any, but their range is basically holarctic — I would like to encourage them to move in around my house.
“I would like to encourage them to move in around my house.”
Definitely! I’ll definitely welcome someone spring-hunting all these small biting flying critters in my home! Does it also do flies? Last summer I had some really loud annoying (and rather fast) buzzers in my bedroom.
504 m/s2 is over 50 times the force of gravity! Not only does it survive, it hangs on.
All that and it’s pretty too!
I’m mostly here for the spiders and the twerking. OK, I may have been misinformed about the twerking. I’m still holding out hope. But the spiders do not disappoint. And the anti fascism is an extra bonus.