The tiny ray spider uses its web to grab its prey out of the air. Though common practice with comic book characters, this ability is unusual in spiders. So I'm thinking we've all seen a spider ...

Spiders' social tendencies appear to stem from what Dr. Penna-Gonçalves calls being "lazy to launch," where young spiders stay home longer instead of dispersing after their first molt. "In those ...

A tethered mosquito approaches the web in the path of release of the cone, and triggers web release response. Credit: S.I. Han and T.A. Blackledge, 2024. Ray spiders deploy an unusual strategy to ...

A nocturnal spider in the East Asian subtropical forests has created an unusual hunting strategy. This cunning predator is a nocturnal sheet web spider, Psechrus clavis, which captures fireflies as ...

Ecologists have observed a species of nocturnal spider attracting prey to its web using the bioluminescent beacons of already trapped fireflies. This rare example of a predator exploiting its prey's ...

It’s well understood that spiders have poor eyesight and thus sense the vibrations in their webs whenever prey (like a fly) gets caught; the web serves as an extension of their sensory system. But ...

Spiders are intriguing creepy crawlies, and now, scientists have discovered that some spiders lure prey in using a terrifyingly smart tactic that may give you nightmares. The researchers made this ...

Spiders are often treated as simple ambush predators, reacting only to what touches a web or wanders too close. Research over the past two decades has complicated that picture. Some spiders plan ...

Ant‐eating spiders represent a fascinating model of trophic specialisation and adaptive evolution. These predators exhibit a narrow dietary spectrum (myrmecophagy), targeting specific ant taxa by ...

So I'm thinking we've all seen a spider spinning a web at some point - probably a web that functions as a kind of barrier to ensnare unsuspecting insects. Turns out another kind of spider uses its web ...